US told to restore normal ties, manage differences

Senior Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi on Tuesday called on the Biden administration to focus on cooperation and manage differences in bilateral ties so as to bring the relationship back to its former course of sound and steady development.

Yang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the call in an online conversation with board members of the US National Committee on United States-China Relations.

“More than a week ago, the Biden administration officially took office. China-US relations now stand at a key point and face new opportunities and new challenges,” said Yang, also director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee.

Yang said that normal China-US interactions need to be restored, and “China should be seen as it is.”

The previous US administration pursued some misguided policies toward China, said Yang, noting that the root cause is a strategic misjudgment by some in the United States. “They view China as a major strategic competitor, even an adversary. That, I am afraid, is historically, fundamentally and strategically wrong.”

It is a task for both China and the United States to restore the relationship to a predictable and constructive track of development, and to build a model for interaction between the two major countries that focuses on peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, according to Yang.

He proposed that, at the government level, the embassies of the two countries and other channels should serve as bridges, while other players including think tanks, universities, media, and businesses as well as exchanges at the sub-national level can also contribute in their own ways to bolstering overall relations.

Yang said that he hopes the new administration will remove the blocks to people-to-people exchanges, such as harassing Chinese students, restricting Chinese media outlets, shutting down Confucius Institutes and suppressing Chinese companies.

Yang then called for the proper management of differences and the broadening of mutually beneficial cooperation.

“Both sides need to respect each other’s histories, cultures and traditions, respect each other’s core interests and major concerns, and respect each other’s choices of political system and development path,” Yang said.

He pointed out that China has no intention to challenge or replace the United States’ position in the world. Emphasizing that China never meddles in the internal affairs of the United States, he urged the US to honor its commitments under the three Sino-US Joint Communiques, strictly abide by the One China principle, and respect China’s position and concerns on the Taiwan question.

Yang urged the United States to stop interference in the affairs of Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang, and to stop attempts to hold back China’s development by meddling in China’s internal affairs. “Any trespassing would end up undermining China-US relations and the United States’ own interests.”

Blinken flayed for backing UK’s BNO policy on HK

China on Tuesday censured US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for saying that the US should follow Britain’s so-called BNO policy to open its doors to those residents of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region who want to leave the city including lawbreakers.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said countries were supposed to punish violators of the law as a matter of fundamental principle. He said if the US believed in this principle and agreed that it also applied to the lawbreakers involved in the Capitol Hill incident, it should object to allowing entry of the law-breaking residents of the HKSAR.