“If the United States does not hit the brakes, and continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailment, which will become conflict and confrontation, and who will bear the catastrophic consequences?”

In an unexpectedly sharp escalation of diplomatic rhetoric, China’s foreign minister said that the US should change its “distorted” attitude towards China or “conflict and confrontation” will follow, while defending the country’s stance on the war in Ukraine and defending its close ties with Russia.

Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of an annual parliament meeting in Beijing, Foreign minister Qin Gang took an uncharacteristically direct swipe at the US, and said that the U.S. had been engaging in suppression and containment of China rather than engaging in fair, rule-based competition.

“The United States’ perception and views of China are seriously distorted,” said Qin, a trusted aide to President Xi Jinping and until recently China’s ambassador in Washington. “It regards China as its primary rival and the most consequential geopolitical challenge. This is like the first button in the shirt being put wrong.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/china-threatens-us-conflict-and-confrontation-xi-issues-unusually-blunt-rebuke-us-policy