US and China ambassadors identify areas of cooperation as well as danger zones

Several hours after envoys’ remarks, the Pentagon announced that high-level military-to-military discussions between the nations have resumed

Xie Feng says if Washington continues to insist Beijing is a competitor, then improving the bilateral relationship ‘would be out of the question’

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Envoys from the US and China said on Tuesday that since Joe Biden and Xi Jinping’s summit in November, the bilateral relationship had improved somewhat. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:51am, 10 Jan 2024Updated: 7:53am, 10 Jan 2024

US and Chinese envoys commemorated the 45th anniversary of official diplomatic ties on Tuesday by mixing warm sentiments about last year’s summit between their leaders with warnings about Taiwan and trade restrictions that suggested the two sides are far from understanding each other’s intentions.

Washington’s ambassador to Beijing, Nicholas Burns, addressed an audience at the Carter Centre in Atlanta via video, praised the Chinese government for “concrete action” to block the flow of fentanyl precursors from the US and restarting military-to-military dialogue while underscoring Washington’s hard line on sales of advanced technology to China.

His comments came hours before the Pentagon announced the resumption of high-level military-to-military discussions – the US-PRC Defence Policy Coordination Talks – which were halted when bilateral tensions boiled over in 2022. Restarting the talks was one of the pledges made during the summit in November in California.

“We’ve seen action, real action, concrete action by the government in Beijing to begin to shut off the flow of precursor chemicals, to take action against those Chinese companies that were involved,” Burns said, before turning to the need for technology export restrictions.

US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, shown in December, praised Beijing for its “concrete actions” taken against Chinese companies involved in the production and export of fentanyl precursors. Photo: Xinhua

“We simply are not going to allow the People’s Liberation Army to acquire our most sensitive technology so that it can compete with us militarily, and there’ll be no compromise on those advanced semiconductors, and other technology restrictions that we’ve put into place,” he added.