China on Wednesday brushed away international criticism Beijing has received following race-based comments issued this week by a top diplomat who encouraged its Asian neighbors to drop their Western ties and strengthen allegiances with China.
Director of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission Office Wang Yi raised international eyebrows Monday when he claimed the U.S. and its European allies cannot tell the difference between Chinese, Japanese and South Korean visitors.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, shakes hands with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi during a meeting in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on July 9, 2022. (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Americans take all visitors from China, South Korea and Japan as Asians. They cannot tell the differences, and it’s the same in Europe,” Wang said. “No matter how yellow you dye your hair, or how sharp you make your nose, you’ll never turn into a European or American, you’ll never turn into a Westerner.”
“The irony of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi telling Japanese and Koreans ‘you can never become an American, is that Japanese and Koreans become Americans every day,” Jeff M. Smith, Director of the Asian Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation said. “They’re part of the fabric of America.
“What they can’t become is Chinese,” he added. “Tone deaf. Again.”
Chinese foreign affairs Minister Wang Yi speaks during the 2023 Munich Security Conference on Feb. 18, 2023 in Munich. (Johannes Simon/Getty Images)
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Two U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers, top center, South Korean Air Force F-35 fighter jets and US Air Force F-16 fighter jets, bottom left, fly over South Korea Peninsula during a joint air drill in South Korea, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022. (South Korean Defense Ministry via AP)
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The U.S. has ramped up its security alliances with Japan, South Korea and other regional partners in recent years as Beijing has become increasingly aggressive in areas like the South China Sea and North Korea continues to expand its weapons program.
As Wang pushed for strengthening raced-based alliances he also claimed that “some major countries outside the region deliberately exaggerate ideological differences, weave various exclusive small circles, and try to replace cooperation with confrontation and unity with division.”