China's foreign ministry has repudiated U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns's suggestion the country has ambitions to overtake Washington as the premier global power.
"China will not dominate the world and we do not think the world should be dominated by any country," ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.
Washington shares a complex relationship with Beijing, which the American envoy to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield has labeled a "strategic adversary." While each country is a major trade partner with the other, the two are locked in a geopolitical rivalry spanning the military, technological, economic, and diplomatic domains.
Burns gave a candid assessment of China's global aims during an interview on CBS News' 60 Minutes last week.
"I think ultimately, they want to become and overtake the United States as the dominant country globally. And we don't want that to happen," he said.
The diplomat framed the countries' relationship as a contest of fundamental ideologies, but he pointed to a key difference between this "battle of ideas" and that of the Cold War.
While former U.S. archrival the Soviet Union drew its strength from a powerful military and nuclear arsenal, its economy could never compete with the U.S. However, "China's economy is very strong," Burns said. "We're dealing with an adversary, a competitor in China stronger than the Soviet Union was in the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s."
He expressed concern over flashpoints in the Asia-Pacific region such as the spike in Chinese military activity in the Taiwan Strait. "That's very intimidating, meant to intimidate," he said.
China considers Taiwan a rogue province and has vowed to someday annex it by any means necessary, despite the fact the Chinese Communist Party government in Beijing has never ruled there.
In addition, Burns said he didn't see tensions deescalating in the South China Sea, where a volatile territorial feud is playing out between China and U.S. defense treaty ally the Philippines. "And that's a problem," he added.
Responding to Burns' comments during a press conference on Monday, Mao Ning categorically rejected his characterization of the ties between the world's largest and second-largest economies.
"We oppose defining the China-U.S. relations with competition," Mao said, adding that China "has no intention to replace or challenge any country."
Mao further stated that China's vision for a global order is based on equality and shared prosperity. "China will not dominate the world, and we do not think the world should be dominated by any country," she asserted.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian ... Read more
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