SpaceWar.com reports: “China will be a global force for peace and stability, the country’s foreign minister Wang Yi said Thursday in a wide-ranging press conference where he hit out against US ‘suppression’ and expressed support for Palestinians.

‘In the face of complex turmoil in the international environment, China will persist in being a force for peace, a force for stability, and a force for progress in the world,’ Wang told reporters.

Wang met the press on Thursday on the sidelines of China’s largest annual political gathering, which opened in Beijing earlier this week.

The ‘Two Sessions’ — parallel meetings of China’s rubber-stamp parliament and political consultative body — offer a rare glimpse into the strategy of the Communist Party-led government for the year ahead.

This year’s gathering is being closely watched for signals as to Chinese leaders’ confidence in current geopolitical conditions, as tensions persist across the Taiwan Strait and Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its third year.

China’s expanding political reach has sparked friction on multiple fronts, with Wang’s press conference coming after Southeast Asian and Australian leaders warned this week against Chinese actions that ‘endanger peace’ in the South China Sea.

China has increasingly flexed its muscles in the South China Sea, which it claims almost entirely despite an international arbitration ruling that declared its stance baseless…”