The head of Chinese diplomacy delivered a violent charge against the United States on Saturday, February 18, before the Munich Security Conference. In an indictment against Washington, Wang Yi judged “absurd and hysterical” the American reaction to the overflight of American territory by a Chinese balloon. “There are a lot of balloons in the sky, from different countries. Do you want to shoot every one of them? It doesn’t show that America is strong.” hammered the senior diplomat, “It’s 100% abuse of the use of force”.
Insistence on peace
According to him, it was a simple weather research balloon that had drifted involuntarily in American airspace. “We urge the United States not to do such absurd things just to divert attention from its domestic problems”warned Wang Yi.
The head of Chinese diplomacy presented his country as a champion of ” peace “a word repeated about thirty times, and reiterates that Moscow and kyiv should “sit around the table and find” an issue ” policy “ to the conflict. ” We don’t want to add fuel to the fire, or take advantage of this crisis, said the head of Chinese diplomacy. We want to facilitate peace negotiations and act as an intermediary. War and conflict have no winners. »
Dialogue of the deaf between Washington and Beijing
As in a dialogue of the deaf, the American vice-president, Kamala Harris, also present in Munich, questioned the neutrality displayed by Beijing in the Russian aggression against Ukraine. The United States is “troubled by the fact that Beijing has deepened its relations with Moscow since the beginning of the war” she pointed out. ‘Any move by China to provide lethal support to Russia would only reward aggression, continue the killings and further undermine a rules-based order’ warned the vice-president.
Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor, also for the first time accused Russia of carrying out “crimes against humanity” since the start of its invasion of Ukraine, warning that those responsible will have to “to realize”. “We have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards and there is no doubt: these are crimes against humanity”she said. “And I say to all those who perpetrated these crimes and to their superiors or accomplices in these crimes: you will account for it”.
Wang Yi soon in Moscow
Wang Yi is to go to Moscow after a European tour. The Europeans, especially Germany and France, are still hoping to convince China to put pressure on Vladimir Putin to end his ” special military operation “. Paris had estimated, Thursday, February 16, that “time to reconnect” with China, where Emmanuel Macron is due to go in April.
A posture at odds with that adopted by the head of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg. “We shouldn’t make the same mistake with China and other authoritarian regimes” only with Russia, he warned in Munich. “We must of course continue to trade and engage economically with China, but our economic interests cannot outweigh our security interests.” did he say, judging “normal that we protect ourselves”.
Joe Biden under pressure from Congress
Already strained relations with the United States have soured since the Pentagon revealed the balloon’s presence over the northwestern United States earlier this month. US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken postponed his trip, originally scheduled for February 5-6 to Beijing, in response to the incursion.
Despite this onslaught of rhetoric, a meeting between the two men was not excluded on the sidelines of the Munich Conference. Joe Biden is trying to balance his administration’s desire to keep ‘open lines of communication’ with Beijing amid a bipartisan outcry in Congress over what the House of Representatives and Senate resolution said was a ‘brazen violation. of American sovereignty.