China’s ambassador to London, Liu Xiaoming, said the United States had started a trade war with China and that there would be no winner from such an approach, Reuters reports.
“It is not China that has become assertive. It’s the other side of the Pacific Ocean who want to start new Cold War on China, so we have to make response to that,” Liu told reporters. “We have no interest in any Cold War, we have no interest in any war.
“We have all seen what is happening in the United States, they tried to scapegoat China, they want to blame China for their problems,” he said. “We all know this is an election year.”
“They want to do anything including treating China as an enemy,” Liu said. “Probably they think they need an enemy, they think they want a Cold War but we have no interest, we keep telling America, China is not your enemy, China is your friend, your partner.”
Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States wants to build a global coalition to counter China, saying that the communist state could no longer be treated as a "normal country."
All the same, when he was asked if relations with the United States had deteriorated beyond repair, Liu said: “I don’t think we have passed the point of no return.”