By Chris White
An internal Chinese report warns Beijing officials that backlash from the coronavirus pandemic risks tilting China into a full bore armed conflict with the United States, Reuters reported Monday.
Anti-China sentiment hasn’t been this white-hot since the Tiananmen Square crackdown more than three decades ago, sources familiar with the paper told Reuters. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the report, which the sources say was presented to Chinese President Xi Jinping and other officials in April.
China must be prepared for a confrontation between the two global powers, the sources said.
A Chinese think tank, the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), which is affiliated with the communist country’s top intelligence body, drew up the report as the coronavirus pandemic continues to hit the U.S., where it has killed more than 67,000 people.
China had a responsibility to maintain transparency and warn the world about the virus “since they were the first to learn of it,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus told Reuters.
Ortagus, who did not directly address the report in his response, added: “Beijing’s efforts to silence scientists, journalists, and citizens and spread disinformation exacerbated the dangers of this health crisis.” The National Security Council has not returned the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment about the nature of the report.
A Chinese foreign ministry representative did not offer Reuters confirmation about the report, and China’s Ministry of State Security could not be reached for comment as it has no contact details, according to Reuters. The think tank that reportedly helped collect the report did not reply to Reuter’s request for comment.
News of the internal report comes as President Donald Trump considers retaliatory measures against China over what he and other officials believe is the communist nation’s decision to hold off on warning the world about the severity of the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, which originated in Wuhan, China, and has killed nearly 170,000 people worldwide.
Beijing could face a rising wave of hostility in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that could tip relations with the United States into 'armed confrontation', an internal Chinese report has warned.
The report, presented early last month by the Ministry of State Security to top Beijing leaders including President Xi Jinping, concluded that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, the sources said.
As a result, Beijing faces a wave of anti-China sentiment led by the United States in the aftermath of the pandemic and needs to be prepared in a worst-case scenario for armed confrontation between the two global powers, according to people familiar with the report's content, who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.
The report was drawn up by the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of State Security, China's top intelligence body.
China's Ministry of State Security has no public contact details and could not be reached for comment.
CICIR, an influential think tank that until 1980 was within the Ministry of State Security and advises the Chinese government on foreign and security policy, did not reply to a request for comment.
But the presentation of the report shows how seriously Beijing takes the threat of a building backlash that could threaten what China sees as its strategic investments overseas and its view of its security standing, according to Reuters.
Relations between China and the United States are widely seen to be at their worst point in decades, with deepening mistrust and friction points from US allegations of unfair trade and technology practices to disputes over Hong Kong, Taiwan and contested territories in the South China Sea.
It is widely believed in Beijing that the United States wants to contain a rising China, which has become more assertive globally as its economy has grown.
The report also warned that anti-China sentiment sparked by the coronavirus could fuel resistance to China's Belt and Road infrastructure investment projects, and that Washington could step up financial and military support for regional allies, making the security situation in Asia more volatile.
Three decades ago, in the aftermath of Tiananmen, the United States and many Western governments imposed sanctions against China including banning or restricting arms sales and technology transfers.
China is far more powerful nowadays.
Xi has revamped China's military strategy to create a fighting force equipped to win modern wars. He is expanding China's air and naval reach in a challenge to more than 70 years of U.S. military dominance in Asia.
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