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Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi urges the United States not to challenge or seek to subvert China’s model of governance. Photo: Xinhua

Beijing warns US risks disaster if Biden team continues ‘wrong China policies’ of Trump

  • Chinese foreign minister tells US deputy secretary of state Taiwan is China’s most important issue among sovereign affairs and the US should act cautiously
  • Wendy Sherman presses for the release of some Americans and Canadians detained in China, saying ‘people are not bargaining chips’
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi blamed US President Joe Biden’s administration for continuing the “wrong China policies” of Donald Trump, warning that it risked “big disaster” if Washington did not take remedial action.
Wang told US deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman that Washington had to bear in mind China’s three main concerns to stop China-US relations from further deteriorating.

“The new US government has continued the extreme and wrong China policies of the previous administration, repeatedly challenging China’s bottom line and intensifying suppression on China. China resolutely opposes that,” Wang was quoted by the Chinese foreign ministry in a statement on Monday.

Failure to manage China-US relations would be a “big disaster”, Wang said, adding that the US “should establish an objective and correct understanding of China … and return to a pragmatic China policy”.

Deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman (left) called on China to look beyond differences and work with the US on difficult global issues. Photo: Phoenix TV via AP Video

Wang made three core demands of the US, saying that it must not challenge or seek to subvert China’s model of governance as it was related to the fate of 1.4 billion Chinese people.

He said the US should remove sanctions it had imposed on China on the grounds of alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang and undermining Hong Kong autonomy, and should stop exercising long-arm jurisdiction against China and restricting China’s technological development.

Taiwan was the most important issue when it came to sovereign affairs, Wang said.

“If there were provocation from Taiwan independence forces, China has the right to take any necessary measures to stop it. We call on the US to abide by its promises on the Taiwan issue and act cautiously,” he said.

He said the issues of Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong were not about human rights, but the crackdown against independence forces.

“China’s development is not to challenge the United States, nor is it to replace the United States. We have never been interested in betting on America’s win or loss, and China’s development is not based on the premise of America’s decline,” he said.

“We never export ideologies and development models to other nations. All countries should independently explore development paths that suit their national conditions.”

Despite the tense exchanges, Wang said Sherman’s trip could aid mutual understanding between China and the US and cut the risk of misjudgment.

In unprecedented move, China tells US what it must do to repair relations

The talks are the first senior face-to-face encounter between the two countries since March and are seen as an essential step towards arranging a meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Wang, and eventually paving the way for US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to meet.
For her part, Sherman called on China to rise above their differences and work with the US on global issues such as climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic as a responsible power.

“There are some things that rise above specific differences that are the global responsibility of great powers,” Sherman said in an interview with Associated Press.

Sherman, who was sworn in in April, described the meetings as another step in the process of trying to work through critical issues with China.

“We will see whether, in fact, there’s follow-up and we are able to move another step,” she said. “There’s no way to know in the early stages of building this relationship whether we will get to all the places that we hoped for.”

US legislation targeting China clears key congressional committee

She said they had frank conversations on issues that divided them, ticking off a long list of US concerns, including what she called “the crimes against humanity” against Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region, the crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong, China’s use of its economic size to pressure others, and its “aggressive actions” around Taiwan and in the South and East China seas.

Sherman also pressed for the release of some Americans and Canadians detained in China, saying “people are not bargaining chips”, and raised concern about pressure on foreign journalists in China. China has tried two Canadians on national security charges in apparent retaliation for Canada’s arrest of Huawei financial chief Meng Wanzhou who was wanted in the US.

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