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Le Yucheng, vice-minister of foreign affairs, has written an article dismissing “some politicians in the US” for their provocative actions and for “maliciously attacking” the Communist Party and China’s political system. Photo: Xinhua

China-US tension: senior Chinese official urges renewed talks to avoid relations getting ‘out of control’

  • Long commentary by the foreign ministry vice-minister calling for dialogue is a departure from Wolf Warrior rhetoric
  • But Le Yucheng said there was ‘no room for compromise’ on territorial sovereignty issues
A senior Chinese foreign ministry official has urged China and the United States to resume dialogue to prevent relations from spinning out of control after plunging to their lowest level in decades.

Le Yucheng, vice-minister of foreign affairs, penned a nearly 4,000-character piece in the Communist Party mouthpiece, People’s Daily, on Monday to call for a security dialogue to prevent strategic misjudgments between the countries, as well as exchanges between their think tanks and media.

“We should restore and restart dialogue mechanisms at all levels and across all areas to bring our problems to the negotiating table,” he wrote. “Through the establishment of various mechanisms, we can effectively manage risks to ensure China-US relations do not get out of control and become derailed.”

Le’s long commentary reflected a step back from the heated rhetoric of China’s Wolf Warrior diplomats. However, it continued to cast deteriorating relations between the major powers as entirely the fault of the US.

The piece also sought to rebut the bipartisan consensus in Washington on the failures of the decades-long policy of engagement with Beijing – seen as having failed to liberalise or even democratise China – with a plea to return to realms of cooperation between the two.

Senior Beijing diplomat says he is ready to talk to US leaders any time

Tensions and rhetoric between China and the US have escalated in recent months on multiple fronts, sparking fears of an elevated risk of military conflict between the nuclear-armed powers.

US defence secretary Mark Esper argued in an August 24 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal titled “The Pentagon is prepared for China” that the increasingly modernised Chinese military would threaten the “free and open international system”.

In response, on Sunday China’s defence ministry described the commentary as “full of a cold war mentality and ideological prejudice”.

“It baselessly distorted the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and exaggerated the so-called China military threat,” the ministry said in a statement. “It is compete nonsense.”

Le in his piece on Monday dismissed “some politicians in the US” for their provocative actions and for “maliciously attacking” the Communist Party and China’s political system to suppress and contain the country.

“There is a small group of politicians in the US who, for personal gain, are distorting history, rejecting history and spreading various fallacies to slander China, pushing China-US relations into dangerous territory,” he wrote. “The so-called theory of failed engagement with China is bringing back a cold war mentality, rejecting the course of China-US history, and rejecting the achievements in our relationship over the last 40 years.”

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The remarks appear directed at figures such as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – a frequent target of vilification by Chinese state media – who has described the Communist Party of having “designs for hegemony”, for stealing US intellectual property and for its “gross human rights violations”.

“We can’t treat this incarnation of China as a normal country, just like any other,” Pompeo said in an address in July. “If we bend the knee now, our children’s children may be at the mercy of the Chinese Communist Party, whose actions are the primary challenge today in the free world.”

Le did not directly address key sources of friction between the countries, including Beijing’s militarisation of the South China Sea, but did say there was “no room for compromise” on territorial sovereignty issues relating to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang. The Chinese vice-minister also argued that current tensions were “entirely provoked by the US”.

“Some politicians in the US have even viciously attacked the Communist Party, drawing the distinction between China and the US as a contradiction between ‘freedom’ and ‘authoritarianism’, and advocating a free democratic alliance to counter China,” he wrote. “China will definitely not accept bullying or oppression, and will not swallow any bitter fruit that harms our national sovereignty, security or developmental interests.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Top Chinese official tells US to bring issues to the table
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