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Beijing can’t be trusted, says Biden’s pick as new US ambassador to China
“Beijing proclaims that the East is rising and the West is in decline,” Burns testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
President Joe Biden’s pick to be ambassador to China drew sharp lines with Beijing over its “aggressive” actions in the Indo-Pacific but said “American strength” gives the US key advantages in the relationship between the world’s two largest economies, even as China “firmly rejected” Nicholas Burn’s tough comments.
Burns, a longtime diplomat who previously served as US ambassador to NATO and Greece, told lawmakers considering his nomination on Wednesday that China has been the aggressor in its relationship with Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan and the Philippines.
But he emphasized his view that the US has the upper hand.
“Beijing proclaims that the East is rising and the West is in decline,” Burns testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “I’m confident in our own country,” he added, citing the US military, foreign service and educational system as advantages over China. “The People’s Republic of China is not an Olympian power.”
In his testimony, Burns echoed the Biden administration’s stand on cooperating with China where possible but condemning many of its actions, calling China’s treatment of its largely Muslim Uyghur minority “genocide” and its trade practices unacceptable.
Burns also singled out China’s frequent incursions of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone as particularly egregious, saying it’s clear that “they intend to take back Taiwan” and that the US needs to redouble efforts to prevent that from happening.
In Beijing, the Chinese foreign ministry issued a strong rebuttal to Burns’ comments.
“The remarks of Mr Burns smack of Cold War zero-sum mentality and run counter to facts. China firmly rejects them,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press conference on Thursday.
“Issues related to Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong are purely China’s internal affairs that brook no foreign interference. The accusation of the so-called ‘genocide’ in Xinjiang is an outrageous lie fabricated,” he said.
Burns emphasised building alliances in the Indo-Pacific as essential to countering China. He also gave what would be a rare bit of credit from the Biden administration to its predecessor, praising President Donald Trump and his last secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, for reinvigorating a bloc with Australia, India and Japan.
