Top China diplomat says Washington should respect Beijing and ‘avoid making misjudgments’
- Politburo member Yang Jiechi says the countries should take opportunities to cooperate but blames US for damaging the relationship
- Yang’s commentary follows Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s call for more dialogue and resetting the US-China framework
China’s top diplomats have appealed to the US – for the second time in a week – to repair the damaged China-US relationship, stressing that the disputes between the two nations can be managed and resolved.
Yang Jiechi, a member of the Communist Party Politburo and considered China’s leading diplomat, called on both China and the US to seize opportunities for cooperation but added that Washington should respect Beijing’s “core interest” and “avoid making misjudgments”.
Yang’s message – which came in a lengthy commentary published on Friday by the state-run Xinhua news agency – was released just two days after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in an interview with Xinhua, called for more dialogue and resetting the US-China framework.
Those relations are facing a heightened risk of disengagement following a series of tit-for-tat tough gestures on trade, technological, security and ideological fronts.
In his article, Yang detailed the history and friendship between the two nations since 1978, when diplomatic relations were formalised. He stressed that the countries have had many disputes over the past decades, but have always coped.
“China and the United States have also experienced ups and downs and turbulence. However, both countries have been able to take care of the overall situation, manage contradictions and differences and properly handle sensitive issues,” he said.
He blamed the deterioration of the China-US relations on US politicians who, he said, had made “groundless and malicious attacks against the Communist Party of China and Chinese political system”.
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“[The US] should avoid making misjudgments in strategy and differences in management. For China and the US, win-win cooperation is the only right choice. The US must reject the incorrect behaviour of cold war thinking and zero-sum games,” Yang wrote.
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Yang’s piece was published just hours after US President Donald Trump issued two executive orders to take effect in 45 days banning US “transactions” with the Chinese-owned apps TikTok and WeChat. The US Commerce Department was instructed to define what transactions are to be banned.
The action was just the latest taken against Chinese firms by a Trump administration which contends that Chinese apps and devices that gather personal data and information pose a national security risk.
Yang said that the earlier generation of leaders such as Richard Nixon and Mao Zedong were aware of their nations’ differences but agreed to respect each other’s sovereignty and interests to establish diplomatic relations. The past four decades have seen the world as well as China and the US benefit from the relationship, he added.
Yang also listed a string of areas the two countries have cooperated on, including trade, cultural exchanges, climate change and public health. China and the US also worked together on security issues like jointly training Afghan diplomats, the piece said.
He called on the US to respect China’s “core interest” on issues like Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang and territorial integrity – and warned that Beijing would take countermeasures if its interest is damaged.
He urged Washington to stop “bullying” Chinese companies and to create a fair, open, non-discriminatory environment for them.
“We hope that the US will strengthen cooperation with China to create favourable conditions for the implementation of the phase one trade deal.”
Yang reiterated China’s call for all sectors from both countries to engage in dialogue, adding that the door for communication “has always been fully open”.
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“Facts show, there is no obstacle that can’t be overcome between China and the US,” Yang wrote.
China observers said that the remarks by Yang and Wang followed the same line but that Wang’s offered additional details concerning Beijing’s take on topics like its territorial claims to the South China Sea.
Wang has also proposed that the US and China draw up three lists: one on areas and tasks upon which they should cooperate; a second on problems that need to be discussed; and lastly, one on the issues that cannot be resolved and should be set aside.
Lu Xiang, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the more chaotic the situation was, the more China needed to declare its positions – though he doubted that such statements had any imminent effect to ease the tension.
“As to whether US would respond positively to the comment and how effective it would be – all depends on Trump’s judgment of the political situation in the US,” said Lu.
“Too many uncertainties lie ahead, but our baseline is US-China relations still matter greatly,” Lu said.
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“We have to remain cool-headed and will not start the first fire to the relation nor initiate the escalation. However, there is always a ‘but’ situation that needs to be prepared for,” he said.
“What remained unsaid in those speeches was that we need to prepare for handling the worst scenario in the meantime,” he said.
Wang Huiyao, director of the Center for China and Globalisation, a think tank based in Beijing, said that China needs to send goodwill and sensible messages to various parties in the US and to other countries.
“We don’t want to go low, but choose to convey benign signals,” he said.
