Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister, Wang Yi (left) meets with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on September 14, 2021 in Singapore. Photo: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, urged the US on Tuesday to take an objective attitude toward China's development and seek peaceful co-existence, cooperation and win-win relations. 

Wang made the remarks during the joint press conference with Singapore Foreign Affairs Minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, after meeting with the country's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and the Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat. Singapore is the third stop for Wang's tour to neighboring countries after Vietnam and Cambodia. The last stop will be South Korea. 

Some reporters asked at the press conference if China is engaged in a diplomatic competition with the US in the region and how Southeast Asian countries could avoid picking sides. 

In response, Balakrishnan said that the US is the most developed country in the world and most important partner for the region. But for the past 40 years, the most successful story has been China's rise. As a close friend of China, Singapore hopes China and the US could deal with their competition in a constructive way, keep tensions under control and work together with regional countries on global challenges, including the COVID-19 and climate change. 

Wang said that China's development is inevitable as it has strong internal driving forces. The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is irreversible and must be accomplished. This is also one achievement of the overall development of humanity.

How to view China's development is an important issue for every country. Wang noted that during his meeting with Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, he praised the Singaporean leader for taking a rational, justified and objective view on China's development, adding that it is good to find opportunities for cooperation and joint development. 

Wang said that there are some countries and forces in the world that could not accept China's development because of doubts or even serious miscalculations. This does no good for cooperation or development of relations, he said. 

Wang said that the US should realize that it is not the only one in the world that has the right for development but other countries have it too. The Americans are not the only ones that have the right to live in happy lives, people in other countries also have it.

The world is colorful and the development shared by all is true and sustainable one. It is unfair to let one or a few countries to be developed while others are left in poverty, said Wang.

He noted that we hope the US could, like Singapore and many other countries, take an objective attitude toward China and seek and expand cooperation. As the world's largest economies, China and the US cooperation will benefit the world. The US should abandon its zero-sum mentality, advance with the times and learn how to coexist with other nations and peoples to build a stable, peaceful and prosperous world. 

During Tuesday's conference, Wang also mentioned that China has made positive contributions to the global efforts against the epidemic, taking the lead in particular areas. 

First, China took the lead in sharing information with other parties by releasing the genetic sequence of the virus as soon as it became available and shared experiences in prevention and control, Wang said.

Second, China took the lead in providing large quantities of anti-epidemic supplies to other countries. By early September, China had provided 320 billion masks, 3.9 billion protective suits and 5.6 billion testing kits to more than 200 countries and regions.

China has also been the major vaccine provider for developing countries, with more than 1.1 billion doses of vaccines distributed to more than 100 countries. A total of 360 million doses of Chinese-developed vaccines have been provided to ASEAN countries.

Additionally, China took the lead sending medical experts abroad, with 37 medical teams to be dispatched to 34 countries on all continents, and building a community of health for mankind, Wang concluded.

Wang stressed that China's support to the global fight against the coronavirus has no geostrategic intentions or political strings attached.