Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang and US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns held talks on Monday as tensions are soaring between the two nations.
The meeting came after Burns said Washington was ready to talk with Beijing as communications have broken down after Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a trip to China over the Chinese balloon that wound in US airspace.
Qin’s message was that in order to foster communications, the US must respect China’s positions, including its red lines over Taiwan. “It is not possible to talk about communication on the one hand, but to keep suppressing and containing China on the other hand,” Qin said, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry readout.
“We must respect China’s bottom line and red line, and stop undermining China’s sovereignty, security, and development interests. In particular, we must correctly handle the Taiwan issue, stop hollowing out the one-China principle, and stop supporting and condoning ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces,” the readout said.
The conversation comes as the US continues to boost military and diplomatic support for Taipei, steps Beijing strongly opposes. Chinese President Xi Jinping told President Biden when the leaders met in Bali last November that Taiwan is the “first red line that must not be crossed.”
Following the Bali meeting, the US and China made a point to continue high-level talks, but the progress was reversed after Blinken canceled his trip to China. POLITICO reported last month that Beijing had effectively frozen high-level contacts with the US and that Blinken was unable to reschedule his trip. The Qin-Burns meeting was one of the highest-level meetings between the two sides since the balloon incident.
Qin told Burns that the two sides should handle “unexpected incidents in the relationship between the two countries in a calm, professional and pragmatic manner, so as to avoid another impact on Sino-US relations.” Qin said the US and China should “promote dialogue and cooperation on the basis of mutual respect, reciprocity and mutual benefit.”
At this point, the US has not shared much detail about what Burns conveyed to Qin. On Twitter, Burns said he and Qin discussed “challenges in the US-China relationship and the necessity of stabilizing ties and expanding high-level communication.”
“China Tells US It Must Respect Red Lines to Foster Communication,” just as the US is totally disrespecting China’s redlines is as useful and helpful as using digital Politico to wipe my a$$. …What’s that? You don’t believe me? Try it and see for yourself. Might as well buy yourself a new laptop. (Sarcasm alert)
Heck you can substitute “China” with “America” in these types of stories.
They better respect our red lines or else…lol.
Politicians and their
obligatory pronouncements ….
More political posturing; the US has similar demands that we tell them they better obey too.
“do as I say, not as I do”
That is not “talks.”
That is a declaration by China that there will be no talks with the US as long as it continues to behave as it has.
They scolded Burns, then sent him home to deliver the message. No “talks.”
They were not listening, and clearly said they would not listen to that.
The Art of War: Don’t throw stones from a glass house.
At this point China needs to enact a blockaid of all US ships and military planes to Taiwan under the auspice of stopping US terrorist activities against China. What is the US government going to do??
All of their ships are floating coffins, and their planes will be shot down if they attempt to break the blockaid.
Once China removes the scourge of US terror from its sphere of influence peace can ensue. Afghanistan was a great reminder that the US does not win war’s…
“At this point China needs to enact a blockaid of all US ships and military planes to Taiwan under the auspice of stopping US terrorist activities against China. What is the US government going to do??”
Unfortunately, probably publicly note that blockade is an act of war and escalate from there.
The wiser, more moderate course would be to ignore the announced blockade and just treat any vessels attempting to enforce it as non-state pirates to be destroyed on sight. That way the Beijing regime could save face by pretending it hadn’t got stupid in the first place.