Chinese Foreign Minister Qing Gang on Monday met with US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns during which he sharply criticised Washington’s policy towards Beijing, specifically on Taiwan, but at the same called for stabilising the ties between the two countries, saying that it is a “top priority”.
Qin’s meeting with Burns, his first ever since he took over as Foreign Minister after serving as China’s envoy to Washington, has set off speculation that the two countries are on the verge of restarting their active dialogue that stalled since February this year after the US shot a Chinese spy balloon. Following the balloon incident, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken put off his visit to Beijing.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing on Monday that the meeting is a normal diplomatic arrangement. In his meeting with Burns, Qin said a series of erroneous words and deeds by the US has undermined the hard-won positive momentum of the bilateral ties, disrupted the planned dialogue and cooperation agenda, and chilled bilateral relations again.
He urged the US to deeply reflect and work with China to get the ties back on track. “The top priority is to stabilise China-US relations, avoid a downward spiral and prevent accidents from occurring between China and the US. This should be the basic consensus between the two countries and is also the bottom line that must be upheld when dealing with state-to-state relations, especially ties between two major countries,” Qin added.
The US must stop undermining China’s sovereignty, security and development interests, correctly handle the Taiwan question in particular, refrain from hollowing out the one-China principle, and stop supporting or conniving with the “Taiwan independence” separatist forces, the Chinese foreign minister said.
China claims Taiwan as part of its mainland and has stepped up military actions around the self-governing island as the US has increased its contacts with Taipei, since the visit of then-US Speaker Nancy Pelosi in August last year.
On the spy balloon incident, Qin said, “accidental incidents” in bilateral relations should be dealt with in a calm, professional and pragmatic manner to avoid further shocks to China-US relations.
In a brief post on Twitter, Burns said he and Qin discussed “challenges in the US-China relationship and the necessity of stabilising ties and expanding high-level communication.”
Qin’s meeting with Burns followed the US envoy’s comments last week that Washington is “ready to talk” to China.
“Our view is we need better channels between the two governments and deeper channels, and we are ready to talk,” Burns said at an event at the Stimson Centre, which he attended virtually. “We’ve never been shy of talking, and we hope the Chinese will meet us halfway on this,” he was quoted as saying by CNN.
After Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, China cut off talks with Washington on major issues, from climate change to military relations and the spy balloon incident further exasperated their ties.
Burns told the Stimson Centre event that the US has been calling on China to open all of the channels suspended following Pelosi’s Taiwan trip. He reiterated Blinken’s
visit to China would be rescheduled “when conditions are appropriate.”
