Beijing on Wednesday asked Washington to stop “imagining China as an enemy.”
The statement came in response to the US Senate passing Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 which aims to boost the US’ capacities to “compete” with Chinese technology.
“China stays committed to no-conflict and no-confrontation and will firmly safeguard core interests and territorial sovereignty,” Wang Wenbin, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, told a news conference in Beijing.
“The US should not treat China as its imaginary enemy,” Wang said, urging Washington “to stop interfering in China’s internal affairs”, according to Chinese public broadcaster CGTN.
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The bill passed by the US Senate authorizes about $190 billion for provisions to strengthen the US technology and research — and would separately approve $54 billion for the country’s production and research into semiconductors and telecommunications equipment.
Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) — China’s top legislature — said in response to the development: “The bill is full of Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice, slanders China’s development path and domestic and foreign policies. Under the banner of ‘innovation and competition,’ it interferes in China’s internal affairs and seeks to contain China’s development.”
How the US intends to develop and strengthen its competitiveness is its own business, but China is firmly against the US making an issue out of China and perceiving it as an imaginary enemy. The US is the greatest threat to itself. Getting its own house in order trumps all else. pic.twitter.com/wo56sZwXUG
— TwiChen (@Twichen) June 9, 2021
“At a time when the world enters a period of turbulence and change, the practice of treating China as an ‘imaginary enemy’ at every turn is against the general trend of the world, unpopular and doomed to fail,” the NPC said.
Similarities with China
China subsidizes its companies and invests massively in them. The US plan, which must also be approved by the House of Representatives, takes a similar approach, providing for the promotion of American firms and production with an eye towards boosting local employment.
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A total of $52 billion is to be invested over five years to encourage the manufacturing of semiconductors in the United States, as well as for research and development into the technology. Another $1.5 billion will go towards the development of 5G technology.
Under Trump, relations between Washington and Beijing grew markedly worse, but the two economies still remain deeply interconnected. However, the combination of the trade war and the Covid-19 pandemic has cut into their commerce. The next question is whether the world’s two largest economies will begin to truly decouple.
Anadolu with additional input by GVS News Desk