China, US heading for 'conflict and confrontation,' foreign minister warns

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Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Qin Gang said Tuesday that his country and the U.S. are heading for "conflict and confrontation" due to American policy.

In his first press conference as foreign ministry, Qin accused the U.S. of pushing for the destruction of Taiwan by instigating tensions between the island and the mainland.

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China's foreign minister Qin Gang holds a China's constitution during a press conference at Media Center on March 7, 2023, in Beijing. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

"Why does the U.S. keep on professing the maintenance of regional peace and stability while covertly formulating a plan for the destruction of Taiwan?" Qin asked.

"If the United States does not hit the brake — but continues to speed down the wrong path — no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing and there will surely be conflict and confrontation and who will bear the catastrophic consequences?" Qin continued. "Such competition is a reckless gamble, with the stakes being the fundamental interests of the two peoples and even the future of humanity."

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits national political advisors from the China National Democratic Construction Association and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, who are attending the first session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference CPPCC, in Beijing March 6, 2023. (Shen Hong/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Taiwan, also known as the Republic of China, is an island nation off the coast of the mainland. Taiwan has declared itself independent of the People's Republic of China, and has claimed continuation of governance from the pre-revolutionary China.

The People's Republic of China has long claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait, the relatively narrow strip of ocean between the island of Taiwan and the Chinese mainland. The Chinese military has frequently sent planes into the area, testing Taiwan's air defense zone.

The United States does not have official relations with Taiwan, but has been stepping up engagement with the island as China seeks to isolate it from global institutions.

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Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China CPC Central Committee, also Chinese president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses a meeting marking the 90th anniversary of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee and the opening ceremony of its 2023 spring semester in Beijing March 1, 2023. (Photo by Zhang Ling/Xinhua via Getty Images)

"The resolution of the Taiwan question is a matter for the Chinese people on our own, and no foreign country has the right to interfere," Qin said, later adding, "There seems to be an invisible hand, pushing for the protraction and escalation of the conflict and using the Ukraine crisis to serve certain geopolitical agenda."

Last year, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan on the first diplomatic mission of its kind since 1997. China responded to the trip in outrage, warning that the U.S. was pushing the Taiwan issue too far.

The Chinese military conducted live-fire drills surrounding Taiwan for weeks following Pelosi's visit, an apparent simulation of an invasion.

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Qin Gang, China's foreign minister, speaks while holding a copy of the constitution during a news conference in Beijing Tuesday, March 7, 2023. President Xi Jinping sought to rally China's private sector to help overcome "containment" by the US and other countries, in rare direct criticism of the nation's biggest trading partner. (Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Since Pelosi's trip, further U.S. Congressional envoys have visited the island and military cooperation between the U.S. and Taiwan has escalated.

CIA Director William Burns stated last month that Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered his military to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027.

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China's President Xi Jinping, bottom center, arrives for the second plenary session of the National People's Congress with other Chinese leaders at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 7, 2023. (Photo by GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)

"We know as a matter of intelligence [Xi] has instructed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready by 2027 to conduct a successful invasion," Burns said on Feb. 3. "Now, that does not mean that he's decided to conduct an invasion in 2027, or any other year, but it's a reminder of the seriousness of his focus and his ambition."

China is currently holding an annual meeting of the National People's Congress, its highest legislative body, at the same time as the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory meeting.

The ongoing government conventions are together often referred to as the "two sessions" and will likely set the tone for the nation's policies in the coming years.

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Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., gives remarks at a news conference in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol Building. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen will meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the U.S. early next month, instead of overseas, in order to avoid provoking China, a report says. 

McCarthy previously said he wanted to visit Taiwan if elected speaker, according to the Financial Times, and Fox News Digital reported in January that the Pentagon was preparing for the California Republican to visit Taipei later this year. 

However, now with relations between the U.S. and China becoming increasingly strained, Tsai and McCarthy have agreed to meet in California instead at the start of April, when the Taiwanese leader makes a trip to Central America, McCarthy’s home state and New York, the Financial Times reports. 

Fox News' Greg Norman contributed to this report.