China has said the United States is stoking a new Cold War ahead of the presidential elections in November. Beijing said on Thursday that some politicians in the US are looking for a scapegoat as they seek electoral support.
"It is not China that has become assertive. It's the other side of the Pacific Ocean who want to start new Cold War on China, so we have to make response to that," China's ambassador to London, Liu Xiaoming, said, according to Reuters. "We have no interest in any Cold War, we have no interest in any war," he added.
President Donald Trump has ratcheted up criticism of China as he faces Democrat Joe Biden in the presidential election. Trump has accused President Xi Jinping of taking advantage over trade and not telling the truth over the novel coronavirus outbreak. Much to China's anger, Trump has maintained that the coronavirus outbreak is a "China plague".
Ambassador Liu said Washington has started a trade war with China and that there would be no winner from such an approach. "We have all seen what is happening in the United States, they tried to scapegoat China, they want to blame China for their problems," he said. "We all know this is an election year."
Treating China as an Enemy
The envoy did not mention Trump or Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden by name, but he said some U.S. politicians were doing and saying anything to get elected.
"They want to do anything including treating China as an enemy," Liu said. "Probably they think they need an enemy, they think they want a Cold War but we have no interest, we keep telling America, China is not your enemy, China is your friend, your partner."
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said earlier this month that the United States wanted to build a global coalition to counter China as he accused Beijing of exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to further its own interests.
Asked if relations with the United States had deteriorated beyond repair, Liu said: "I don't think we have passed the point of no return."
After British Prime Minister Boris Johnson slapped a ban on Huawei's participation in 5G networks, Liu bluntly warned that the United Kingdom it had no future if it tried to decouple from the Communist state.
"It is hard to image a 'Global Britain' that bypasses or excludes China, decoupling from China means decoupling from opportunities, decoupling from growth and decoupling from the future," Liu said.
He said London had poisoned relations by meddling in its former colony of Hong Kong and cautioned that the United Kingdom would "pay the price" if it wanted to treat China as a hostile state.
(With Inputs from Reuters)
