US rejects China call out, says no desire to change 'status quo'

WASHINGTON

The Biden administration rejected charges Tuesday from China that the US is responsible for a looming collision between the world's top two economies.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby maintained that the US is not the party responsible for any changes in the US-Sino relationship, emphasizing that "there is nothing about our approach to this most consequential bilateral relationship that should lead anybody to think that we want conflict."

"In fact, everything that we're doing is in keeping with the president's guidance that we aim to compete, and we aim to win that competition with China but we absolutely want to keep it at that level," he told reporters, maintaining that there has been no change to key US policy, including its One China policy, which maintains Taiwan is part of China.

The comments come after Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang warned that the US and China are bound for "conflict and confrontation" unless Washington changes course on its regional policies.

"The Taiwan question is the core of the core interests of China, the bedrock of the political foundation of China-US relations, and the first red line that must not be crossed in China-US relations," he told reporters in Beijing.

"If the US does not hit the brake but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing, and there will surely be conflict and confrontation,” said Qin.

Directly responding to China's top diplomat, Kirby said, "with all due respect to to the Chinese foreign minister, there is no change to the United States posture when it comes to this bilateral relationship."

"We do not support independence for Taiwan. We've been very clear about that. We also don't want to see the status quo cross across that strait changed unilaterally, and we certainly don't want to see a change by force," added Kirby.

China views Taiwan as a breakaway province, though the island has ruled itself since 1949 and has established diplomatic relations with more than a dozen nations. Beijing has vowed to reunify it, including by force if it deems such action necessary.

China in August held a more than one-week massive military exercise surrounding Taiwan that included missile launches and mass deployments of ships and aircraft following former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's official visit, which roiled bilateral relations.

In addition to the show of military might, Beijing downgraded military dialogue with the US and suspended cooperation on climate change issues, along with six other countermeasures.