US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, on Sunday, said that China had recently acted “more aggressively abroad” and was behaving “increasingly in adversarial ways”. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to Blinken’s comments.
Blinken, who arrived in London on Sunday for a G7 meeting, commenting on whether Washington was heading towards a military confrontation with Beijing, said, “It’s profoundly against the interests of both China and the United States to, to get to that point, or even to head in that direction.” Tensions between the US and China have spiked due to several reasons including the pandemic, trade and the latter’s violation of Human rights.
"President Biden made clear that in a number of areas we have real concerns about the actions that China has taken, and that includes in the economic area, and that includes the theft of intellectual property," Blinken added.
Last month, Blinken said that the US was concerned about China’s aggressive actions towards Taiwan. China, which has been aggressive about its emails to resources on the South China Sea, was told off by the Philippines President Rodrigo Duerte, who asked Beijing to mind its own business and said that Manila won’t stop maritime exercises within its waters. The reply came after China refused to pull out vessels from the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone
Blinken also said the US was not aiming to “contain China” but to “uphold this rules-based order — that China is posing a challenge to.”
"We don't have the luxury of not dealing with China," Blinken said. "There are real complexities to the relationship, whether it's the adversarial piece, whether it's the competitive piece, whether it's the co-operative piece,” he added.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday that differences between New Zealand and China are becoming harder to reconcile and added that there are things on which China and New Zealand “do not, cannot, and will not agree”. China and New Zealand have been trading partners, haven’t seen eye-to-eye in recent times as New Zealand has been vocal about China’s policy on Hong Kong and its treatment of ethnic Muslim Uihgurs in Xinjiang.