BEIJING, 8 May: China\u2019s foreign minister told the U.S. ambassador on Monday that Washington is responsible for the downturn in relations between the two countries and must \u201creflect deeply\u201d before ties can return to a healthy track, an official said.
\nQin Gang\u2019s comments follow a suspension of serious dialogue on a range of issues between the world\u2019s largest economies, increasingly at odds over tariffs, attempts by Washington to deprive China of cutting-edge technology, and China\u2019s claims to self-governing Taiwan and large parts of the South and East China Seas.
\nChina\u2019s Foreign Ministry quoted Qin as telling Ambassador Nicolas Burns that a \u201cseries of erroneous words and deeds by the U.S.\u201d since a meeting in November between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping \u201chave undermined the hard-won positive momentum of Sino-U.S. relations.\u201d
\n\u201cThe U.S. side should reflect deeply, meet China halfway, and propel China-U.S. relations out of the difficulties and back on the right track,\u201d Qin was quoted as saying.
\nThe United States should \u201ccorrect its understanding of China and return to rationality,\u201d Qin said, repeating his earlier accusation that the U.S. is attempting to suppress and contain China. Beijing routinely cites U.S. political and military support of Taiwan as infringing on its sovereignty.
\nQin said ties had \u201cgrown icy\u201d and the priority was to stabilize them \u201cand avoid a downward spiral and unanticipated events.\u201d
\nThe U.S. should stop \u201cundermining China\u2019s sovereignty, security, and development interests,\u201d particularly through support of Taiwan\u2019s independent identity, Qin said.
\nChina says Taiwan must come under its rule, by force if necessary, while the United States says the relationship between the sides must be resolved peaceably. U.S. law requires it to treat threats to Taiwan, including a military blockade, as a matter of \u201cgrave concern,\u201d though it remains ambiguous under what conditions U.S. forces could be dispatched to defend the island. AP<\/p>\n
Despite the lack of formal diplomatic relations, the U.S. is Taiwan\u2019s largest supplier of military hardware and diplomatic support, even while it continues to maintain relations with Beijing. Biden has been seen as going a step further by repeatedly saying that the U.S. would back Taiwan militarily, and America has been upgrading basing arrangements with the Philippines, located just south of Taiwan.
\nU.S.-China military contacts have been on hold for years, and China\u2019s top staff refused to answer a call from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after then-Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan last year. China retaliated for the visit by staging a naval and air force blockade of Taiwan and cutting off channels of communication with the U.S. on issues from environmental protection to maritime security.
\nAt a daily briefing Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin described the meeting between Qin and Burns as \u201da normal diplomatic arrangement.\u201d
\nIn a tweet, Burns said he met with Qin and \u201cdiscussed challenges in the U.S.-China relationship and the necessity of stabilizing ties and expanding high-level communication.\u201d
\nIn comments to a U.S. think tank last week, Burns said Washington has been consistent in its approach toward Taiwan and insists that \u201cany resolution of the (cross-Taiwan Strait) differences has to be peaceful.\u201d
\n\u201cWe hope that the government here in China will commit itself to a peaceful resolution of the dispute,\u201d Burns said in an online discussion with the Washington-based Stimson Center.
\nThe U.S. \u201chas the obligation as well as the interest to make sure that we can provide defensive arms to Taiwan so that the Taiwan authorities can have a proper defense and we can help them build up a deterrence,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cIf Taiwan has a sufficient deterrence in place, and if other countries around the world are supporting a peaceful resolution, one would hope that that would lead the Chinese to understand the consequences of the use of force in the Taiwan Strait,\u201d Burns said.
\nContacts between Washington and Beijing have been fraught for months since U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly canceled a Beijing trip aimed at easing U.S.-China tensions in February. That came after a large high-altitude Chinese balloon was shot down after it sailed across the U.S., drawing Pentagon accusations of spying on sensitive military sites despite firm Chinese denials.
\nQin was due to depart Monday for visits to Germany, France and Norway amid China\u2019s fraying relations with Europe over alleged unfair trade practices, human rights abuses and Beijing\u2019s support for Russia in its war against Ukraine.
\nChinese President Xi and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, declared their governments had a \u201cno limits\u201d friendship before Moscow\u2019s February 2022 attack on Ukraine. Beijing has refused to criticize the Kremlin over the invasion but has tried to appear neutral and has called for a cease-fire and peace talks. AP<\/p>\n
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BEIJING, 8 May: China\u2019s foreign minister told the U.S. ambassador on Monday that Washington is responsible for the downturn in relations between the two countries and must \u201creflect deeply\u201d before ties can return to a healthy track, an official said. Qin Gang\u2019s comments follow a suspension of serious dialogue on a range of issues between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-215962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}