Teaching politics:Chinese students attending a class about the Communist Party’s historyat a school in Lianyungang earlier this month.AFPSTR  

U.S. officials have “lost their minds and gone mad” in their dealings with Beijing, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday, in the latest verbal salvo between the two superpowers.

Tensions between Washington and Beijing have run high this year and some of the most outspoken critics of China in American Congress were this week hit with sanctions, days after the U.S. imposed visa bans and asset freezes on several Chinese officials.

U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr added fuel to the fire on Thursday when he accused Beijing of mounting an “economic blitzkrieg” to replace Washington as the world’s pre-eminent power and spread its political ideology around the world.

Comments that distract

But Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Mr. Barr and other American officials were criticising China to distract from domestic political problems. “These people, for self-interest and political gain, do not hesitate to hijack domestic public opinion... to the point where they have lost their minds and gone mad,” she said. Ms. Hua added that China had no intention of challenging or replacing the U.S. and said she hoped that Washington could “return to rationality” in its China policy. “A sparrow cannot understand the ambition of a swan,” she said. “This is a serious misjudgment and misunderstanding of China’s strategic intent.”

Mr. Barr accused hackers linked to the Chinese government of targeting American universities and businesses to steal research related to COVID-19 vaccine development, levelling the allegation against Beijing hours after Western agencies made similar claims against Russia.

“The People’s Republic of China is now engaged in an economic blitzkrieg — an aggressive, orchestrated, whole-of-government (indeed, whole-of-society) campaign to seize the commanding heights of the global economy and to surpass the United States as the world’s preeminent technological superpower,” Mr. Barr said.

Mr. Barr’s speech amounted to a wide-ranging condemnation of what he said were Beijing’s tactics to gain an economic upper hand in the 21st century, and to engage in influence campaigns touching diverse corners of American life, including business, politics and even entertainment.

Multiple accusations

Mr. Barr warned that universities which welcome Chinese-funded initiatives could unwittingly lose control of academic research.

Numerous Trump allies have issued strongly worded messages over China in recent days, coming at a time when bilateral relations have fallen to their lowest point in decades over issues from accusations of technology theft to China’s claims in the South China Sea.

“Because everyone knows that China is in a leading position in the research and development of new coronavirus vaccines, we have first-class scientific research personnel, and we do not need to gain a leading position with theft,” Ms. Hua said.

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