Rex Tillerson, the US secretary of state has said he is uncertain of how America and China will continue to co-exist "for the next half century".
R ex Tillerson, the US secretary of state has said he is uncertain of how America and China will continue to co-exist “for the next half century”.
Speaking during his first state visit to Beijing, Mr Tillerson said he was committed to establishing an “era of peace” with China, but was surprisingly frank in expressing his concerns about the relationship between the two super powers .
“There is a question perhaps even in the minds of the Chinese: How will the American people, the Chinese people, live with each other in this world for the next half century? ” he said.
Mr Tillerson said that as China had opened itself to the world, and begun to occupy a place in the global economy, the two nations had “managed to exist with one another in a spirit of non-conflict”.
They had their differences and but still did what was “in the best interest of our people”.
But Mr Tillerson, the former Exxon Mobil chief executive , said that globalisation was changing this. He characterised the world as being at “an inflection point in the relationship of global powers”.
W ithout elaborating he warned that there are “issues arising that have gone unresolved”.
He made the comments to a journalist from the Independent Journal Review, a social media-minded news outlet geared toward young conservatives, in his first sit-down interview since taking on his new role in the Trump administration.
