Mahathir said, "We want to be friendly with China, but the United States wants everyone to confront China," Hua Chunying retweeted

"We want to be friendly with China, but the United States tells everyone, 'Please confront China...'" Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying tweeted a video of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in an interview on May 5, sparking discussion. In an interview, Mahathir named the United States, accusing it of asking other countries to "confront China, put pressure on China, and sanction China."

According to Japanese media reports, on May 5, local time, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad attended the activities of the Foreign Correspondents' Association in Japan in Tokyo. The video posted by Hua Chunying is a clip from Mahathir's interview. According to the video, Mahathir said of China, "We want to maintain friendly relations with China, if we can do that, then why can't other countries do it?" But the U.S. tells everyone, 'Please confront China, please pressure China, sanction China.'" ”

Mahathir went on to ask what kind of response would the Chinese side get from this approach?" He added, "It's better for us to sit down and communicate with each other than to cut off diplomatic relations."

According to Japan's "J-CAST" news network, in an interview on the 24th, Mahathir also commented on the Group of Seven (G7) summit held in Hiroshima a few days ago. Mahathir said the G7 summit "brought together like-minded countries" and that the meeting was "like talking to itself." He added that "bringing together like-minded countries to make decisions that are in their own interest is not called leading the international community."

At 97, Mahathir is Malaysia's longest-serving leader. In the past year, in interviews with media in Britain, Japan and other countries, he has repeatedly talked about the current situation of Sino-US relations, urged the United States to try to improve relations with China, and called on Southeast Asian countries to move closer to China. In early May, the nearly 5-year-old Mahathir once again said in a video interview with a reporter from the Global Times that the United States should not provoke China on the Taiwan issue, and that the United States' efforts and resources on confrontation and war preparation are not beneficial to the United States, China and the world. He praised China's stance on the Ukraine crisis and said it had successfully played its role as a "peacemaker." (Global Network)