Wang Yi File Photo

China is concerned about the evolution of the situation in Ukraine and China's position on the Ukraine issue is consistent, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call upon request on Tuesday. The legitimate security concerns of any country should be respected, and the purposes and principles of the UN Charter should be upheld, Wang said. 

Wang said the evolution of the Ukraine issue so far is closely related to the delay in the effective implementation of the new Minsk agreement. China will continue to make contacts with all parties concerned based on the merits of the matter. 

"China once again calls on all parties to exercise restraint, recognize the importance of implementing the indivisible security principle, ease the situation and resolve differences through dialogue and negotiation," the senior Chinese diplomat said. 

The current situation in Ukraine was caught at the global spotlight after Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed two decrees recognizing "the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR)" and "the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR)" as independent and sovereign states.

Chinese Ambassador to UN Zhang Jun also called on all parties relevant on the Ukraine situation to continue dialogue and consultation and seek reasonable solutions to address each other's concerns on the basis of equality and mutual respect at an emergency Security Council meeting on the Ukraine situation.

During the phone call, Wang also urged the US side to fulfill a series of promises that US President Joe Biden has made and avoid sending wrong signals on containing China by its new version of the Indo-Pacific Strategy and by its provocations on the Taiwan question. 

The phone call was made on the heels of the 50th anniversary of former US president Richard Nixon's icebreaking historic visit to China, which kicked off the normalization process of China-US ties and laid the foundation for the formal establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties in 1979.

However, China-US bilateral relations have been facing growing difficulties and the overall atmosphere has changed drastically. 

Recently, the US-launched new version of Indo-Pacific Strategy openly listed China as the primary region that brings challenges, and it attempted to include the strategy of containing China through the island of Taiwan into US regional strategy, which clearly sent wrong signals in terms of China containment, Wang said. 

There is competition and cooperation between China and the US. We cannot simply use competition to define bilateral relations, the senior Chinese diplomat noted. Some US officials have advocated a long-term and fierce competition with China, which is likely to evolve into a full-scale confrontation between the two countries. 

"China once again urges the US to take concrete actions to reflect on the series of commitments made by President Biden," Wang said. 

On the very day that marks Nixon's historic visit, China announced sanctions against two US military industrial giants -- Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Technologies Corp -- over their arms sales to the island of Taiwan. Arms sales to Taiwan broke US promises over the Taiwan question made in the three China-US communiqués.

In a few days, it will be the 50th anniversary of the publication of the "Shanghai Communiqué," and its spirit still has strong practical significance for today's China-US relations, Wang told Blinken. 

China hopes the US side will review the original intention of the ice-breaking moment of China and the US, return to a rational and pragmatic understanding of China, and jointly push China-US relations back on the right track of sound and stable development, Wang noted. 

Blinken said that as President Biden has said many times, the US does not seek to engage in a new cold war, change China's system and back "Taiwan independence," and has no intention of confrontation with China, according to a statement seen on the website of the Chinese Foreign Ministry. 

The phone call between Chinese and US foreign ministers came after the closing ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics (some US officials had hyped the so-called diplomatic boycott of the event). However, Blinken congratulated the success of the Beijing Winter Games at the beginning of the phone call, as well as the great achievements Chinese athletes had made, read the Foreign Ministry statement. 

Wang also congratulated the American athletes for their good results in the Games and said that the Chinese and American athletes have had friendly interactions, mutual encouragement and common improvement, which fully embodies the Olympic spirit.