Rubio, Wang Yi manage US-China great power rivalry in Munich even as core tensions linger

The US and China sought to manage their great power competition at Europe’s premier defence summit on Saturday, even as their top diplomats traded thinly veiled barbs at their respective roles in the current global tumult.In back-to-back speeches at the Munich Security Conference, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke of the need to carefully manage the superpowers’ differences, continuing a relative thaw that is expected to see US President Donald Trump travel to Beijing in April.Wang said he was encouraged that Trump had shown respect for China’s President Xi Jinping and the Chinese people.“He has stressed that the US and China working together can get a lot of great things done, and the two presidents can make the fantastic relationship between the United States and China even better,” Wang said.At the same time, he questioned “whether all people in the United States share this view”, pointing to some whom he accused of “cobbling together all these small, exclusive circles”. He said they were “trying to split Taiwan from China and stepping on China’s red lines, which would very much likely push China and the United States towards conflict”.Marco Rubio and Wang Yi with their respective delegations meet on Friday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. Photo: Pool via ReutersRubio, who spoke right before Wang, told the conference it would be “geopolitical malpractice” not to talk to China, as he pledged that Washington would carefully manage its differences with Beijing.