China on July 26 urged the US to be “rational” and stop “demonising” it as the highest-level US envoy to visit the Asian giant under President Joe Biden explored whether the two powers can find common ground.
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi told visiting US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman that the Biden administration had continued its predecessor’s “extreme and erroneous” policy against Beijing and that attempts to thwart China’s development will come to nothing.
He also called for the US to roll back sanctions and visa restrictions against Chinese officials, companies and students, as well as trade tariffs imposed by the previous Trump administration.
And Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Xie Feng told Sherman that Washington’s so-called “rules-based international order” (RBIO) is designed to benefit itself at the expense of others, hold other countries back and introduce “the law of the jungle”.
The RBIO is proposed by the US and a few other Western countries to make their own rules as global rules and contain other countries with such rules, he said.
Washington has abandoned the universally-recognised international law and order, and damaged the international system it helped build, Xie added.
While the US attempts to replace the existing international system with the so-called RBIO, it wants to go back on its words, to change the rules to frustrate others and benefit itself, and to introduce “the law of the jungle” where might is right and the big bully the small, Xie said.
He also objected to the US’ labelling itself as the world’s role model in democracy and human rights.
Xie urged the US side to address its own human rights issues first, pointing out that the US engaged in genocide against Native Americans in the past, and has lost 620,000 lives because of its “inadequate response” to Covid-19.
He slammed the frequent US military action and the wars caused by the “US lies”, which “have brought grave catastrophe to the world”.
Washington is in no position to lecture China on democracy and human rights, Xie said.
The Chinese people could have not been able to generate such immense creativity and productivity if it were not for the “strong leadership” of the Communist Party of China, the “effective political system”, the development path “suited to China’s circumstances” as well as the democracy, “freedoms and human rights” the public have enjoyed, he asserted.
Sherman tweeted that she “spoke about the United States’ commitment to healthy competition, protecting human rights and democratic values” with Wang.
She raised alarm about China’s rising military moves in the Taiwan Strait as well as its claims in the dispute-rife South China Sea.
AFP, CHINA DAILY, THE STRAITS TIMES/Asia News Network
