China’s new ambassador to the U.S. goes full wolf in first major speech

By PHELIM KINE
01 September 2021

China’s newly minted ambassador to the United States arrived only in July, but the honeymoon is already over. Qin Gang on Tuesday reinforced his reputation as a sharp-edged avatar of Chinese diplomacy with a speech that excoriated U.S. “wrong beliefs” and cautioned against violating Beijing’s “red line” of core interests in areas including the South China Sea, Taiwan and Xinjiang.

In his most substantive public statement yet, Qin pointed ominously to China’s nuclear weapons capability and warned of “disastrous consequences” if the U.S. seeks to suppress China using a “Cold War playbook.”

Speaking via video link to a select audience of China wonks and foreign policy heavyweights — including Henry Kissinger, former U.S. ambassador to Beijing Stapleton Roy and former assistant secretary of State for East Asian Affairs, Susan Thornton — China’s ambassador said those who argue his country would meet the same fate as the former Soviet Union show a “serious ignorance of history and China.”

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