US officials have ‘gone mad’ in dealing with China: Beijing

China says US officials have “lost their minds and gone mad” in dealing with Beijing, in the strongest verbal reaction from China to the ratcheting up of tensions by Washington.

“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,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said during a daily news briefing in Beijing on Friday.

Earlier, US Attorney General Bill Barr had accused Beijing of mounting an “aggressive” campaign to gain top economic status.

Hua said Barr had misread China’s intentions.

“A sparrow cannot understand the ambition of a swan,” she said. “This is a serious misjudgment and misunderstanding of China’s strategic intent.”

But she said China had no intention of challenging or replacing the United States, expressing hope that Washington could “return to rationality” in its China policy.

Relations between the United States and China have hit the lowest level in decades. The two are at loggerheads over a range of issues, including trade, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the South China Sea, and the coronavirus pandemic. In all of those cases, Washington has been aggressively ramping up rhetoric against Beijing in recent weeks.

SS