Sinophobia will lead to conflict, envoy tells UN

A Chinese envoy to the United Nations on Tuesday said that Sinophobia is "a misunderstanding of China, a strategic misjudgment, and political manipulation" and warned that it will lead to conflict and confrontation.

"There are a plethora of phobias against given countries, religions and races in the world today," said Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN.

"Some of these phobias stem from the sense of civilizational superiority and a narrow historical outlook, while others are the products of geopolitical clashes and ideological confrontations," he added.

Addressing a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine, Geng said such phobias often become the "logical premise" and "policy pretext" with which certain countries create "imaginary enemies, concoct threat theories, pursue containment and suppression, and stoke division and confrontation".

Driven by such phobias, Geng said, differences are magnified artificially, disagreements are hyped to the neglect of commonalities, and tensions are reinforced and perpetuated.

"As a result, the world is dragged into the quagmire of conflicts and disputes," he said.

"I would like to take this opportunity to point out that for some time now, politicians in a certain country seem to have contracted the conditions of Sinophobia," said Geng, adding that the politicians are "full of prejudice and paranoia about China, peddling anxieties, and instigating tensions".

"A country's China policy, if kidnapped by Sinophobia, will only lead to the hardening of the zero-sum game mentality and containment and suppression, thus resulting in conflict and confrontation," said Geng.

"The world has already been thrown into chaos by the Ukraine crisis. Do they want to create another one to change the world beyond recognition?" he said.

Different voices

Geng said with the development of human society to where it is today, "we should be mature enough to be able to listen to different voices and embrace different ideas and different civilizations".

On Ukraine, Geng said China has been emphasizing that dialogue and negotiation are the only feasible ways to resolve the crisis.

"The international community should stay on the right course of promoting peace talks, and supporting Russia and Ukraine in resuming dialogue as soon as possible and without any preconditions, so as to achieve de-escalation of the situation and help relevant parties swiftly open the doors to a political settlement and jointly maintain peace in Europe," he said.

Not long ago, China issued a paper on its position on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis that contains 12 propositions. Building on that, China is ready to continue playing a constructive role in pushing for a political solution to the Ukraine crisis, he said.