China’s ambassador to Greece sent a message to the US not to try to hinder China’s development, Junzheng Xiao, using a quote from Diogenes to Alexander the Great. “Go further there and don’t block my sun” he characteristically said, speaking at the 8th Delphi Economic Forum, which takes place in Delphi April 26-29 and is under the auspices of A.E. of the President of the Republic, Mrs. Katerina Sakellaropoulou.

Mr. Xiao stressed that the US sees China’s rapid growth as a threat and is trying to stop it, believing that the Asian country should stay at a low value-added level and not penetrate into sectors that may threaten US dominance. “It wants to impose its own rules, but it ignores the rules of the market,” said China’s ambassador to Greece, adding that his country’s goal is to double the average income and develop international partnerships in world trade.

From the side of Cheng Li, Director and Senior Fellow of the John L. Thornton China Center;Brookings Institution in the US, argued that the US is experiencing its first challenge since the end of World War II, at a time when economic inequalities within it are intensifying and the middle class is shrinking, at a time when the middle class in China will double in size , being already larger than that of the US.

THE Zhiqin ShiProfessor, Executive Director of BRI Tsinghua University in China, pointed out that the Silk Road initiative is China’s response at the global level. He also went on to say that the country is already the second most powerful global economy, while aspiring to strengthen the its international partnerships through bilateral agreements with countries such as Italy, France, Germany and Greece.

THE Tang XiaoyangPresident and Professor of International Relations at China’s Tsinghua University, said the US and China want to be world market champions, do the same things, but many see China as a threat to liberal markets.

THE Christine Oakrent, author and columnist for France Culture, underlined that the Chinese want to develop bilateral relations instead of dealing with the EU as a single partner. He estimated that the China-US confrontation places Europe in an unfortunate escalation, but on our continent we are mainly concerned with the war in Ukraine, where Vladimir Putin, as he said, is violating the borders.

In her own statement, He Yun, Associate Professor at Hunan University’s School of Public Administration in China, noted that there are ways for the US and China to cooperate, such as on the issue of climate change. These are the two biggest polluters and if the geopolitical rivalry stops, we will be able to see the elephant in the room, which is climate change, it will determine the future of humanity.