POBNEWS24, Dhaka Aug 22, 2022 : US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said in his interview with CNN that China overreacted to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, and that China has now become an agent of instability in the Taiwan Strait and manufactured the crisis in China-US relations. He also mentioned that Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng summoned him after the plane carrying Pelosi landed in Taiwan. The meeting was “quite contentious”, he noted. What is China’s comment?
In this regard China’s remark that, The remarks of Ambassador Burns confound right with wrong and once again show the US’s distorted and hegemonic logic.
Before US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s provocative visit to China’s Taiwan region, the Chinese side made serious démarches to the US side at various levels to repeatedly tell the US the grave nature and serious harm of the visit and make it clear that all consequences arising therefrom should be borne by the US side. It would be unfair to say that the US had not been warned about the consequences if the visit took place.
Right after Pelosi’s arrival in Taiwan, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Xie Feng urgently summoned Ambassador Burns to make serious démarche and strong protest to the US side on behalf of the Chinese government. He pointed out that the US insisted on following through its wrong decision and must pay the price for it. He also urged the US to immediately redress the mistake by taking concrete actions to undo the egregious impact of Pelosi’s visit.
However, instead of reflecting on its wrongdoing and changing course, the US has sought to deflect the blame on China. Several senior US officials have made public statements one after another that mischaracterized the course of events. They sought to explain away the US’s responsibility for escalating tensions in the Taiwan Strait and depict China as the guilty party.
On the night of August 8, Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng summoned Ambassador Burns once again to make serious démarche over the US’s reckless remarks on China’s countermeasures against Pelosi’s provocative visit to Taiwan. He made it clear that it is the US, not China, that started the crisis; it is the US, not China, that has changed the status quo across the Taiwan Strait; it is the US, not China, that has undermined cross-Strait peace and stability; it is the US, not China, that has been flexing muscles across the world, particularly in the Asia-Pacific; it is the US, not China, that has been wielding the big stick of sanction and bullying the world; it is the US, not China, that has shaken the political foundation of China-US relations and shown no sincerity at all about communication; and it is the US, not China, that has sabotaged China-US cooperation.
The Chinese side pointed to the plain fact that it is the US that made provocations first, imposed an avoidable crisis on the Chinese people, and yet falsely accused China of starting the crisis; it is the US that has applied the salami-slicing tactics to repeatedly cross the red line and undermine the one-China principle and the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, and yet falsely accused China of changing the status quo; it is the US that has been conducting gunboat diplomacy at China’s doorstep, and yet sought to stigmatize and demonize China’s legitimate, lawful, professional and transparent military drills; it is the US that has been undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and yet it tries to shift the blame for making provocations and escalating tensions onto China; it is the US that blatantly infringed on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and trampled on China’s red line, yet it falsely accused China of overreacting and manufacturing the crisis. What the US has done has completely gone over the line. It is not China that is being irresponsible. It is Pelosi and the US government that are being extremely irresponsible.
I want to reiterate that the one-China principle is at the heart of China’s core interests. No country, force or individual shall ever underestimate the firm resolve, staunch will and strong capability of the Chinese Government and people to defend sovereignty and territorial integrity and to achieve national reunification and rejuvenation. China once again urges the US side to abide by the basic norms of international relations including respecting other countries’ sovereignty and territorial integrity and non-interference in others’ internal affairs, return to the right path of the one-China principle and the three Sino-US joint communiqués and stop doing anything that undermines China’s core interests.
