China has “no intention” of challenging or replacing the United States on the world stage, but the superpower should not try to block its continued development, Beijing said in a white paper on Friday. The report, “China and the World in the New Era”, was released by the State Council Information Office just days ahead of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China , which falls on Tuesday. Beijing has been using the upcoming milestone as an opportunity to promote nationalistic sentiment at a time of rising tensions with Washington over trade, geopolitics, technology and culture. “China has no intention of challenging the United States , or of replacing the US,” the report said in a section about the country’s relations with the US, Russia and Europe. “The US is unable to force China’s hand and even less likely to halt China’s development. The US cannot maintain its strength by attempting to contain and suppress other countries, or by transferring its own domestic stresses outward.” On its international relations over the past seven decades, the report said China wanted to maintain good ties with its neighbours, and would uphold multilateralism and protect global trade. It was wrong to see China as pursuing hegemony, it said, as the country’s development and diplomatic model was intended only to offer “a new option” for countries in a world undermined by unilateralism, protectionism and power politics that threatened world peace and stability. “Some countries have ascribed domestic governance problems to economic globalisation or other countries, and resorted to unilateral, protectionist and hegemonic actions,” it said, without naming any. “This approach has damaged the global value, supply and consumption chains, and caused turbulence and conflict in the current international trade order, driving the world economy towards a ‘recession trap’.” China has blamed the US for engaging in protectionism since relations between the two countries went into a tailspin at the outbreak of the trade war in July last year. Washington, meanwhile, has accused Beijing of intellectual property theft and creating “debt traps” for developing countries that have signed up to the Belt and Road Initiative , China’s ambitious infrastructure development plan, which some have described as a push for greater geopolitical influence around the world. In a defence white paper published in July, China accused the US of being primarily to blame for destabilising international security, stoking strategic competition and accelerating a global arms race by developing new types of combat forces. It said also that the US should be held accountable for bringing uncertainty to regional security in the Asia-Pacific. Another white paper released by Beijing in June blamed Washington for the breakdown of the negotiations to find a solution to the trade war. Representatives from the two countries are expected to meet in Washington next month for the latest round of talks, although the meeting has yet to be confirmed. The negotiations come amid growing concerns that the world’s two largest economies might be on the verge of decoupling, but the white paper released on Friday warned against it. “We should not be intimidated by the problems encountered by economic globalisation,” it said. “Withdrawing from international organisations and treaties, decoupling foreign trade relations, and building border walls lead us nowhere. Our problems can only be solved through a process of reform and self-improvement.”