(ANSA-AFP) - BEIJING, MAR 7 - President Xi Jinping has condemned what he branded an American-led "suppression of China", as he urged the country's private sector to boost innovation and become more self-reliant. China's technology ambitions have been hit with a raft of restrictions by the United States and its Western allies, and Beijing has doubled down on the need to shift away from imports for sectors perceived as vital to national security, such as semiconductors and artificial intelligence.

China's foreign minister Qin Gang later said the relationship between China and the US needed to be based on mutual interests and friendship, rather than "US domestic politics and hysterical neo-McCarthyism". In a wide-ranging press conference, former US ambassador Qin dismissed warnings from Western countries that China may supply arms to Russia for its war in Ukraine, saying it would not accept "blame-shifting, sanctions, suppression and threats" targeting Beijing. (ANSA-AFP).