China has never wanted to "replace" U.S., senior diplomat says

BEIJING, Oct 24 (Reuters) - China has never wanted to
challenge or "replace" the United States, and has no interest in
playing power games, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Thursday
amid strained ties between the world's two largest economies.
As well as being in the midst of a bruising trade war, which
both are working to end, Beijing and Washington have in recent
months sparred over a variety of issues, from the protests in
Hong Kong to U.S. support for Chinese-claimed Taiwan.
Speaking at an academic forum, Vice Foreign Minister Le
Yucheng, a rising star in Chinese diplomacy and tipped as a
future foreign minister, noted that there had been speculation
China would assume the United States' "hegemonistic" position in
the world.
"This does not accord with the facts, nor the trend of the
development of the times," Le said, according to a transcript of
his comments published by China's Foreign Ministry.
"China has never wanted to challenge the United States or
replace it, seizing other people's position. Our goal is to let
the Chinese people live a good life, and continually improve our
governance," he added.
China advocates a multi-polar world and maintenance of
multilateralism and free trade, Le said.
China "has never thought of competing with the United States
for hegemony, and is not interested in power games".
In an indirect swipe at the United States, Le said that
"certain countries" talk and talk about how they must compete
with China.
China is not against competition, he said.
"But competition does not mean confrontation and conflict.
One cannot at will engage in extreme pressure, 'decoupling' or
'long arm jurisdiction'," Le said.
China has lambasted the United States for putting sanctions
on Chinese companies and citizens for their dealings with
countries like North Korea and Iran, which Beijing refers to as
Washington's "long arm jurisdiction".
Beijing has also criticised Washington for pressuring it in
the trade war by hiking tariffs on Chinese exports, and some in
China have feared the United States is seeking a complete
"decoupling" of economic and other links with the country.
However speaking earlier this week in Beijing, a senior U.S.
defence official said the United States was not seeking to
"decouple" from China.