Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivers a speech at the Lanting Forum in Beijing, China, on 22 February 2021. Reuters/Shubing Wang
By Reuters Staff | Reuters
BEIJING/WASHINGTON, 23 February 2021
Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi said on Monday the United States and China could work together on various issues if they repaired their damaged bilateral relations, but Washington accused Beijing of trying to avert blame for its actions.
Wang, a Chinese state councillor and foreign minister, said Beijing stood ready to reopen constructive dialogue after ties sank to their lowest in decades under former president Donald Trump.
But he urged Washington to respect China’s core interests, stop “smearing” the ruling Communist Party, stop interfering in Beijing’s internal affairs, and stop “conniving” with separatist forces for Taiwan’s independence.
He called on the United States to remove tariffs on Chinese goods and abandon what he said was an irrational suppression of the Chinese tech sector.
In response, State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters: “His comments reflect a continued pattern of Beijing’s tendency to avert blame for its predatory economic practices, its lack of transparency, its failure to honour its international agreements, and its repression of universal human rights.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters separately that the United States viewed the relationship with China as one of “strong competition.”
Before Wang spoke at a forum sponsored by the foreign ministry, officials played footage of the “ping-pong diplomacy” of 1972 when an exchange of table tennis players cleared the way for then-US President Richard Nixon to visit China.
“Over the past few years, the United States basically cut off bilateral dialogue at all levels,” Wang said in prepared remarks translated into English.
“We stand ready to have candid communication with the US side, and engage in dialogues aimed at solving problems.”
Wang pointed to a recent call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden as a positive step. Biden succeeded Trump as president on 20 January.
Washington and Beijing have clashed on multiple fronts including trade, accusations of human rights crimes against the Uyghur Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region, and Beijing’s territorial claims in the resources-rich South China Sea.
The Biden administration has signalled it will maintain pressure on Beijing. The president has voiced concern about China’s “coercive and unfair” trade practices, and endorsed a Trump administration determination that China has committed genocide in Xinjiang.
Confronting China is one of the few areas where Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress find common ground.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a statement on China’s crackdown on the once semi-autonomous Hong Kong, on Monday urged considering strict consequences for Beijing.
“The Chinese government must know that the world is watching its strangulation of human rights – and that we must put all options on the table for holding China accountable,” said Pelosi, a Democrat.
Wang is feigning innocence and talking about dignity. What a farcical statement! China must be dealt with strength in order to tame this thuggish regime once for all. Why are they begging for dialogue with the US? Hoping the US will not be tricked again like the UK and EU.
One of the most destabilising factor in the US China relation is Taiwan, South China, human rights in Tibet and East Turkistan.
Pompeo rightly pointed out that China is committing genocide in East Turkistan and the Biden administration is endorsing the same.
Therefore the Biden administration must demand rectification of Chinese policies vis-a-vis Taiwan etc before any normalisation of fractured relations.
This is the only way to bring the Chinese to account. There cannot be normal relations when China remains a rogue nation. At the heart of US-China relation is democracy versus dictatorship. Communist China is supporting all the dictators across the globe including the Burmese and Thai military regimes.
It has snuffed out democracy in Hong Kong and is on war path to invade democratic Taiwan and turn it into another Hong Kong. Taiwan is now the frontline for a democratic world imbued with human rights and rule of law. If it is lost, dictators would have been triumphant and the world will be plunged into turmoil as we witness in Burma, Belarus and Thailand.
There will be endless bloodshed with dictators suppressing any challenge to their authority. The way to approach the CCP is with a United front by the democracies of the world. It is heartening that apart from the Quad members, Britain, France and Germany have sent navel ships to mount freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
It is pertinent that a new military alliance of democracies is need of the hour on the lines of SEATO (South East Asia Treaty Organisation) by President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles in 1954 to combat communist aggression across Asia. It must contain a clause which compels a combined military response to any aggression against any of its members.
Whenever China on back foot for indulging in arrogant behaviours and bullying activities it starts to play victim’s card by stating China is victim of unfairly accused. Then it says China is willing to come to the table to sort out the problem provided the opponents are willing to respect the so-called Chinese core interests. The so-called interest is the cause of problems in the first place.
This is Chinese convoluted logic to avoid reality or to buy time or to throw blame towards its opponents.
China has been saying it is willing to talk to America for all frictions between two countries. In reality China is not unless it gets all it wants. It is just publicity not sincerity. US must not let down its guard.