Chinese President Xi Jinping warns of disaster if one civilisation imposes its will on another
- He urges more openness and cooperation in speech at Beijing’s Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilisations
- US State Department’s Kiron Skinner had provoked criticism by calling competition with China ‘a fight with a really different civilisation’
In the latest sign that the confrontation between China and the United States is escalating, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned that one civilisation forcing itself on another would be “stupid” and “disastrous”.
Xi’s remarks, delivered at the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilisations, where Beijing demonstrated its soft power, did not mention the US but were regarded as the highest level response yet to tough rhetoric from Washington.
Analysts said confrontation would lead China to more forcefully promote its initiatives, which will push the US towards a more confrontational stance and further damage bilateral relations.
Xi’s speech took place two weeks after US State Department director of policy planning Kiron Skinner described competition with China as “a fight with a really different civilisation and a different ideology”. Skinner said it was the first time the US had faced a “great power competitor that is not Caucasian”.
Chinese officials rejected Skinner’s remarks, and in his speech Xi appeared to expand on the theme, saying cultures were distinctive but no better or worse than each other.