“It would be completely misguided for Britain to view China as a competitor… what do China and Britain compete with?”
The British government should not “overestimate its impact on the global scene,” spokesperson for the [Communist Party of China], Victor Gao, tells [British propagandist].
Translation: You’re too irrelevant for us to even view you as a competitor. You produce nothing.
As a party spokesperson, Gao will probably stay at plausible deniability levels of subtlety with his burns. Like his statement here is obvs saying Britain isn’t competitive, but he can easily claim that he’s just saying they don’t compete with each other.
Chen has a bit more of a free hand with which to openly slap faces.