Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng: It is time to wake up to the old dream of the empire more than 100 years ago

On January 18, 2022, Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said in his opening speech at the 2022 Macro Situation Annual Forum hosted by Chinese Min University that some people in the United States hyped up the "Tough Theory of China's Diplomacy" and even labeled us as "coercive diplomacy". But how does the United States treat China? The US side positions China as the "most severe competitor", suppressing China without a bottom line, wantonly interfering in China's internal affairs, and infringing on China's core interests. Just recently, US politicians have been chattering about the "genocide" in Xinjiang, the "unfree" election of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, and another batch of Chinese high-tech enterprises have been unjustifiably sanctioned by the United States. The US side has repeatedly said that it wants to carry out "extreme competition" with China, but the "competition guidelines" they have given are, to put it bluntly, to contain China's "all-use to the extreme," including framing and planting stolen goods against China, gathering anti-China alliances, undermining the "Belt and Road," separating China from its relations with other countries, "decoupling" from China in key areas, and enhancing military deterrence against China. In the face of such "extreme competition," do we still expect China to remain indifferent, to be caught with its hands tied, and to be slaughtered by others? It was an old imperial dream more than 100 years ago, and it was time to wake up.