China opposes US-led Indo-Pacific strategy, says "should be dumped at a trash heap"

Beijing opposition to US's Indo-Pacific strategy continues, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the opening ceremony of the 9th World Peace Forum in Beijing said that the US-led Indo-Pacific strategy, which is aimed at countering Beijing, "should be dumped at a trash heap".

Kyodo News reported that Wang stated, countries including the United States and Japan have adopted this strategy to form a siege against Beijing. 

Wang Yi clarified that China opposes the ideology of cooperation to "fuel rivalry" and "an action to accelerate division" and further target the US and some of its allies for their "outdated Cold War mentality", stating that that dreaming the old dream of Cold War hegemony will not help win a promising future, let alone building a better world.

He also attacked the US over the Taiwan issue. Global Times reported the foreign minister as stating, "The US is trying to take risks on the Taiwan question. This is extremely wrong and dangerous. Achieving complete reunification of China is a historical trend and any person or force cannot stop it". 

Even though both China and Taiwan have been governed separately for more than seven decades, Beijing still claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy of almost 24 million people located off the southeastern coast of mainland China.

Indo-Pacific strategy

Earlier, Indo-Pacific was a geographical concept comprising of two regions of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. But in recent times, former US President Donald Trump used the term "Indo-Pacific" which meant that India, the United States, and other major Asian democracies, including Japan and Australia, are joined together to curb China in the new framework of growing "Cold War" influence.

According to some of the Chinese scholars, China's plan of rising geographical changes is the main reason for Washington's efforts to boost Indo-Pacific alliances. This strategy is focused on blocking China’s foreign and security policy behaviour

While others argue that Trump's Indo-Pacific strategy is an update of Obama's rebalance. A researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Xue Li, has stated that the new strategy is required due to the strategic culture and the need for a balance of power in the United States.

(With ANI input)

(Image credit: AP)