China says Washington’s ‘divisive’ Indo-Pacific strategy doomed to fail
- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi accuses US of forcing countries in the region to take sides by disrupting supply chains
- Wang’s comments come just as President Joe Biden prepares to launch regional economic framework with Quad partners
Beijing has rejected Washington’s Indo-Pacific initiatives as tools to contain China that are “doomed to fail”, as US President Joe Biden prepares to unveil the latest US strategy to step up regional engagement.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s withering assessment that the United States is creating division in the region came one day ahead of Biden’s launch of a raft of Indo-Pacific economic initiatives in Tokyo.
The Biden administration’s framing of IPEF as a tool to counter China’s regional clout is likely to find a sympathetic audience among members of the US Congress, where competition with Beijing remains a bipartisan area of concern.
In talks with Pakistan’s new foreign minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, in Guangzhou on Sunday, Wang questioned if the IPEF was forcing countries to take sides between Washington and Beijing, by disrupting supply chains.
“Is the US trying to accelerate the recovery of the world economy, or is it creating economic decoupling, technological blockade, industrial chain disruption, and aggravating the supply chain crisis?” Wang said.
