Taiwan is only the beginning: China seeks Asia-wide influence - diplomat Klimkin

The diplomat shared the details in the program Verdict with Serhii Rudenko on Espreso TV. 

"It's not really just about Taiwan. China has strategic plans to spread its influence over the whole of Asia. The Celestial Empire wants to establish its rules over the whole of Asia, to have a military power that affects everyone and everyone should be reckoned with, as well as to have the yuan as a reserve currency. Taiwan is just the beginning", Klimkin noted.

The diplomat added that China primarily wants to compete with the US for world supremacy.

"China wants to compete with the West, with the United States of America for world leadership. But unlike Russia, China wants to compete while remaining within the world system. After all, China's trade with the United States and the European Union reaches trillions", Klimkin noted.

The expert noted that one of the key consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian war is the consolidation of the collective West, which is not beneficial for China.

"Russia's war against Ukraine brought the collective West to a new level of solidarity. China doesn't like it very much, because they want to have relations separately with the French, separately with the Germans, etc. And now the Celestial Empire has before it a collective, united and coordinated West, which is one  from the results of our war with Russia", Pavlo Klimkin emphasized.