Chinese official lauds US cooperation, walks back 'wolf warrior' talk

A senior Chinese official said Tuesday that Beijing did not seek to reshape the global order and sought greater US cooperation, in the latest departure from past hawkish rhetoric.

At an event to mark 45 years since Washington and Beijing established relations, Liu Jianchao, who heads the international division of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee, quoted President Xi Jinping as saying China "will not fight a Cold War, or a hot war, with anyone."

"People in Asia have our own way of dealing with each other which values peace above everything else, and seeks peaceful solutions to all disputes," Liu said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

"China does not seek to change the current international order. We are one of the builders of the current world order and have benefited from it," he said in fluent English.

"As the world has entered the period of turbulence and transformation, people of all countries are counting on China and the United States to take the lead in resolving more global issues," he said, pointing to cooperation at the COP28 climate summit last month in Dubai.

Relations between the world's two largest economies had sharply deteriorated in recent years, with prominent Chinese diplomats being dubbed "wolf warriors" for their confrontational public statements against the United States.

Asked if there has been a change in approach, Liu said, "I don't really believe that there has always been a kind of wolf warrior diplomacy, and there's no talk about coming back to that diplomacy."

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His visit follows a summit in November in California between Xi and President Joe Biden in which China agreed to address key US concerns.

That included by resuming military dialogue and working to combat the manufacture of precursor chemicals to fentanyl, which has fuelled an addiction epidemic in the United States.

Liu said China wanted "concrete and visible deliverables" on fentanyl.

US analysts have attributed China's new tone to an eagerness to focus on economic concerns at home, and noted that major gaps remain.

Chief among them is Taiwan, the self-governing democracy which China claims, and has vowed to reunify with -- by force if necessary.

Liu was also measured in his remarks on Taiwan, declining to say how China would respond to its election on Sunday, but saying that the island's status was a "red line" for Beijing.

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"We take serious(ly) the statements of the United States not supporting Taiwanese independence, and we hope that the US side will honour its commitment," he said.

The Biden administration describes Beijing as the top challenger to US primacy -- although it has taken a more measured approach rhetorically than former president Donald Trump, who has made opposition to China a signature issue as he again seeks the White House.

But the Biden team has also sought to put China on the backfoot on major international flashpoints.

After China sought to draw a contrast with staunch US support of Israel in the Israel-Hamas war, the Biden administration called on Beijing to use its influence with Iran to rein in Yemen's Houthi rebels, whose attacks on ships in avowed solidarity with the Palestinians have disrupted global commerce.

Liu, who recently visited Iran, said that China supports "peaceful navigation of cargo ships in that part of the world because it's essential for the world's economy."

But he said China did not know the extent of Tehran's involvement with the Houthis, and that Iranian officials denied to him any advance knowledge of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that has triggered near-relentless Israeli retaliation on the Gaza Strip.

"I believe that the Iranians are moving about this conflict in a very prudent way," he said.