China’s new foreign minister, Qin Gang, came out swinging in his debut press conference Monday, warning that U.S. policies toward China were pushing the two countries toward potential conflict.

Qin used the nearly two-hour briefing to denounce everything from the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy and weapons sales to Taiwan to what he said was the U.S. role in prolonging Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. The press briefing on the sideline of the annual meeting of China’s 3,000-member parliament, the National People’s Congress, marked Qin’s highest profile public event since he completed his tenure as Chinese ambassador to the U.S. in December.

Qin accused the Biden administration of policies designed to “contain and suppress China in all respects” driven by what he called a “hysterical neo-McCarthyism” that was inflicting serious harm on bilateral relations.

“If the United States does not hit the brake, but continues to speed down the wrong path … there will surely be conflict and confrontation and who will bear the catastrophic consequences?” Qin said.

Qin hinted at the potential for nuclear conflict between the two countries by saying that those policies could risk “the future of humanity.” And he implicitly referenced Biden’s comments in his State of the Union speech last month that the United States seeks “competition, not conflict” with China by accusing the U.S. of “not fair competition, but malicious confrontation.”

Qin’s uncompromising tone echoes that of his patron, Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping.

Journalists prepare for a press conference by Foreign Minister Qin Gang held on the sideline of the annual meeting of China’s National People’s Congress in Beijing on March 7, 2023.