Chinese Defense Minister: "China-US Strategic Confrontation Enters High-Risk Period"

Donald Trump (left), President of the United States, and Xi Jinping, President of China, shake hands ahead of a bilateral summit on June 29 last year in Osaka, Japan, where the G20 (Group of Twenty) summit was being held. (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Jiwon] Wei Fenghe, China's Minister of National Defense, stated that the strategic confrontation between China and the United States has entered a high-risk phase. It is unusual for China to directly name the United States in such remarks.

The Hong Kong South China Morning Post reported on the 27th that Minister Wei made these comments during a discussion at the Two Sessions (Lianghui - the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference) on the 23rd.

According to the report, Minister Wei said, "Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the United States has strengthened its containment and blockade against us, and the strategic confrontation between China and the U.S. has entered a high-risk period."

He emphasized, "We must strengthen our fighting spirit. We must be proficient in combat and use combat to achieve stability."

Recently, China has shown confrontational patterns by deploying warships and fighter jets in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, and there have been frictions over the enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law.

Although China experienced negative economic growth in the first quarter for the first time since it began announcing quarterly economic growth rates in 1992, it announced that it will increase its defense budget by 6.6% compared to last year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.