China represents the biggest challenge in US history, surpassing even the Cold War, the second US diplomat, Kurt Campbell, said yesterday. He called on Europe to show more firmness towards Beijing, reports France Presse, quoted by BTA.
Campbell, an aide to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and an advocate of reorienting US foreign policy towards Asia, stressed the need for increased investment in key technologies given China's advances.
„It is clear that this is the biggest challenge in our history”, he pointed out to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives of the US Congress. “The Cold War seems to pale in comparison to the China challenge,” he added.
„This is not just a military issue, it covers all areas – from the global south to technology. We need to step up our efforts in all these areas”, Campbell stressed.
The US also accuses China of supporting Russian military efforts in Ukraine. On the question of possible sanctions against Chinese enterprises, “we will need additional support”, noted Campbell, who raised this issue during his visits to Europe.
Lin Jiang, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry, responded today that Campbell's statement “ignores the facts” and exaggerates “the so-called threat posed by China by inciting confrontation between the camps”.
„The US analyzes the international situation and defines US-China relations through the prism of strategic competition, mistakenly considering China as its biggest challenge,” Lin Jiang stressed. “China calls on the US to abandon the Cold War-era mentality of a zero-score game, stop spreading the theory of the so-called Chinese threat, and stop distorting China's strategic intentions,” he added.