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The squabble between the US and China over the possible deployment of a missile defense system in South Korea and the response to North Korea’s nuclear bomb and missile tests is intensifying. It has reached the point where the two countries are trading pointed criticism on the international stage.

During a security meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Munich, Germany, on Feb. 12, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi unleashed a torrent of seemingly calculated criticism of the US. Rejecting a request by John Kerry to exercise greater influence over North Korea. Wang immediately told Kerry that sanctions are not the end goal and China is clearly opposed to discussing the deployment of THAAD, Chinese media said.

Short for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, THAAD is a US-made anti-ballistic missile system.

While it was not reported how Kerry responded to this, he presumably repeated the US‘s standard position that deploying THAAD would not affect China’s security. The US State Department did not mention this in its press release about the meeting.

Wang went one step further in an interview with Reuters on Sunday. The detection range of the X-band radar, a component of THAAD, would go beyond the Korean Peninsula and into the heart of continental Asia, Wang said, causing direct harm to Chinese strategic security. The US must not take advantage of the situation created by North Korea‘s nuclear and missile tests to harm China’s security, Wang added.

This is the first time that Wang has directly mentioned the capacity of THAAD’s X-band radar or officially spoken of US intentions regarding the deployment of THAAD. Previous comments by the Chinese Foreign Ministry have only addressed the need to consider the issue “with prudence.” Wang’s remarks reflect a deep and abiding distrust of the US.

During the interview, Wang dusted off two ancient Chinese proverbs in his attack on the US: “When Xiang Yu’s nephew Xiang Zhuang dances the dance of swords, what he really means to do is to kill Liu Bang” (xiangzhuangwujian yizaipeigong 項莊舞劒 意在沛公) and “Everyone knows what Sima Zhao’s ambitions are” (simazhaozhixin lurenjiezhi 司馬昭之心 路人皆知).

By referring to Xiang Zhuang, who tried to kill Liu Bang while dancing a sword dance, and Sima Zhao, who slew the Wei emperor and ascended the throne, Wang was effectively telling the US to stop pretending to be innocent.

Wang also said that even ordinary people know that defense of the Korean Peninsula is not what the US seeks to achieve by deploying THAAD there.

Along with China‘s current preferred solution to the North Korean nuclear issue - namely, denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and negotiations - Wang brought up a new issue: China’s legitimate national interests must be guaranteed. This emphasizes that, in the response to North Korea‘s nuclear program, China will not accept anything that infringes upon its security interests.

In a column on Feb. 14, China’s state-run news agency Xinhua said that, while the US and South Korea are claiming that deploying THAAD would be a response to North Korea‘s recent provocations, the US has been pushing THAAD on South Korea for the past several years in order to introduce a missile defense system in the country as part of its “rebalancing Asia” policy.

The US has been pressuring China on a variety of fronts. On Feb. 12, the US Congress passed a sanctions bill against North Korea that would enable the US executive branch to increase sanctions against individuals and organizations in other countries that do business with North Korea. The legislation is presumed to be targeting China, which has quite a bit of trade and financial deals with North Korea.

On Feb. 15 and 16, US President Barack Obama will be hosting the leaders of ten members of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) at the Sunnylands resort in California, where he is expected to emphasize the threat of China in the South China Sea.

“The conflict over North Korean nuclear weapons is expanding into a great-power conflict between the US and China. The two countries need to have serious dialogue not only about the nuclear issue but also about the overall order in Northeast Asia,” said Jin Jingyi, a professor at Peking University.

By Seong Yeon-cheol, Beijing correspondent

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]