China not a military threat to US – Collin Powell

 

            Former US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, on Thursday stressed the importance of US-China cooperation and dismissed the assertion that China would be a military threat to the US.

“I do not think China will be a military threat. It is not in their interest to be a military threat to the US,” Powell said in a lecture at the Library of Congress in Washington.

He encouraged the US to work with China, saying such cooperation would not result in a military conflict.

The former top diplomat said China’s economic development in recent decades was “astonishing,” pointing out that China is making efforts to invest in its future.

“The US has to have a proper relationship with China,” Powell said.

Another speaker of the lecture, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, shared Powell’s

views on the importance of US-China ties.

Albright said there was never a time the two major powers had been so dependent on each other and their economies so intertwined.

“The cooperation part of US-China relations is very important,” said Albright, emphasising that it is the essential relationship.

At the invitation of US President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping would pay a State visit to the US in September.