Senior Chinese diplomats, on many occasions, have warned against the attempts by some US politicians that damage bilateral ties, as these moves have pushed the world’s most important bilateral relations toward confrontation.
Terms like “new cold war” and “McCarthyism” have been frequently used by Chinese officials and diplomats trying to bring ties back to normal.
The senior diplomats include Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi, who is also director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC’s Central Committee, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai. They have warned of the danger of worsening China-US ties at least seven times since the US forced China to close the general consulate in Houston in July.
If the negative trend of China-US relations is allowed to continue, China might face more difficulties and challenges; but the promoters of the so-called “new cold war” must weigh the costs they have to pay and the consequences for the world, Cui warned at a recent Brookings Institution webinar. “For whom the bell tolls, there will be a day of reckoning,” Cui warned.
“Right track” and “wrong direction” are the key words that Chinese diplomats frequently used in their latest remarks, as “right track” is about “cooperation, mutual understanding and respect,” while “wrong direction” is “conflict and confrontation.” The remarks showed that China is the one who insists on pulling bilateral ties back on the right track.
Cui said “Stigmatization will not make anybody great. Ideological crusades will not solve problems in today’s world, and are doomed to fail.”
To bring relations back on the right track, Cui had spoken at least four times on China-US relations in a month, the Global Times found. Wang had expressed concerns over the current tense bilateral ties in interviews and in discussions with his foreign counterparts.
Wang said in the phone call with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on July 28 that he was alarmed that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo incited ideological confrontation and was pushing the world toward a new cold war.
The world sees that McCarthyism, which has been swept into the dust bin of history, is trying to make a comeback. If the conspiracy theory which Pompeo recently made against China is allowed to succeed, not only will China-US relations fall into the abyss of confrontation, but the world will fall into a crisis of division, and the future and destiny of mankind will also be in danger, Wang said.
Xin Qiang, deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai, told the Global Times on Thursday that based on the comments of senior Chinese diplomats and officials, “we could tell that China is committed to smooth ties with the US and won’t be diverted by attempts to ruin the relations.”
China’s sincerity may not be accepted by the Trump administration; but hopefully, other forces in the US, including the Democrats, the public and rational people would understand China’s tone, Xin noted.
Comments by senior Chinese diplomats and officials always aim their criticism on the US on “some people” rather than the whole country, which means China believes only a few politicians who only care about their own political interests should be responsible for the worsening bilateral ties, experts said.
Chinese officials don’t blame all US elites, politicians and people, as they know many of them also don’t want to see a new cold war as their interests have likewise been damaged by the dangerous policies of the Trump administration, a Chinese expert on US affairs, who asked not to be named, said.
Yang also recalled how the two countries overcame the challenges and realized the development of relations since the establishment of diplomatic ties in an article published on the Xinhua News Agency on August 7. Yang said that in the past 41 years, the history of China-US relations has proven that both countries, as well as the rest of the world, stand to benefit from cooperation.
“China-US relations would substantially be damaged in the next four years if Trump is reelected. But if Biden wins, he would use different tactics against China – a combination of cooperation and competition, rather than competition only,” Xin noted.
Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai. Photo: Xinhua
