BEIJING (AP) — China on Friday accused the United States of “coercive diplomacy” following comments by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to his Australian counterpart that the U.S. “will not leave Australia alone on the field — or maybe I should say ‘alone on the pitch’ — in the face of economic coercion by China.”
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying accused the U.S. of imposing economic sanctions and strong-arming other countries over trade issues to achieve its “strategic goals.”
Hua said China’s telecommunications and other high-tech industries are now falling victim to U.S. “economic coercion,” an apparent reference to firms including Huawei and ZTE that have faced U.S. restrictions.
“Coercive diplomacy is a specialty of the United States, which has provided the world with classic textbooks and cases of coercive diplomacy through its policies and actions,” Hua said at a daily briefing.
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