China urges US to change misguided mindset

The China-U.S. relationship is in a stalemate, fundamentally because some Americans portray China as an "imagined enemy," said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng, urging the United States to change its highly misguided mindset and dangerous policy.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng (3rd R) holds talks with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman (3rd L) in north China's Tianjin on July 26, 2021. (Xinhua/Li Ran)

Xie made the remarks on Monday during talks with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, who is on a visit to north China's port city of Tianjin from July 25 to 26.

For quite some time, when talking about conflict with China and challenges facing the United States, the "Pearl Harbor moment" and the "Sputnik moment" have been brought up by some Americans, Xie said.

Some international scholars, including some U.S. academics, perceive this as comparing China to Japan in the Second World War and the Soviet Union in the Cold War. It seems as if by making China an "imagined enemy," a national sense of purpose would be reignited in the United States. The hope may be that by demonizing China, the United States could somehow shift domestic public discontent over political, economic and social issues and blame China for its own structural problems, he said.

It seems that a whole-of-government and whole-of-society campaign is being waged to bring China down. It is as if when China's development is contained, all U.S. domestic and external challenges would go away, and America would become great again and Pax Americana would continue to go on, Xie said.

BILATERAL TIES

In terms of the United States' "competitive, collaborative and adversarial" rhetoric, Xie said this is a thinly veiled attempt to contain and suppress China.

The Chinese people feel that the real emphasis is on the adversarial aspect, the collaborative aspect is just expediency, and the competitive aspect is a narrative trap, he said.

The U.S. policy seems to be demanding cooperation when it wants something from China; decoupling, cutting off supplies, blockading or sanctioning China when it believes it has an advantage; and resorting to conflict and confrontation at all costs, he added.

"It seems that the United States only thinks about addressing its own concerns, getting the results it wants and advancing its own interests. Do bad things and get good results. How is that even possible?" Xie said.

What the world needs most is solidarity and cooperation, for humanity are passengers in the same boat, according to Xie.

"The Chinese people cherish peace," said Xie, adding that what China hopes to build is a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, equality, justice and win-win cooperation, and a community with a shared future for mankind.

"China wants to work with the United States to seek common ground while shelving the differences," he said.

The U.S. side needs to change course and work with China on the basis of mutual respect and embrace fair competition and peaceful coexistence with China.

"After all, a healthy and stable China-U.S. relationship serves the interests of both sides. And the world expects nothing less from the two sides," he added.

The U.S. side's so-called "rules-based international order" is designed to benefit itself at others' expense, hold other countries back and introduce "the law of the jungle," Xie said.

This is an effort by the United States and a few other Western countries to frame their own rules as international rules and impose them on other countries.

The United States has abandoned the universally-recognized international law and order and damaged the international system it has helped to build, he said. "It is trying to replace it with a so-called 'rules-based international order.'"

"The purpose is to resort to the tactic of changing the rules to make life easy for itself and hard for others, and to introduce 'the law of the jungle' where might is right and the big bully the small," Xie added.

COERCIVE DIPLOMACY

The United States is the "inventor and patent and intellectual property owner" of coercive diplomacy, Xie said.

The Chinese believe that one must not do to others what one does not like to be done to himself. The desire to seek hegemony or territorial expansion is simply not in the Chinese DNA, according to Xie.

"China has never coerced any country," he said, adding that China responds to foreign interference with legitimate and lawful countermeasures, and the aim is to defend the legitimate rights and interests of the country and uphold international equity and justice.

China has never gone to others' doorsteps to provoke trouble. Neither has China ever stretched its arm into the households of others, still less has China ever occupied any inch of other countries' territory, he said.

"It is the United States who has engaged in broad unilateral sanctions, long-arm jurisdiction and interference in other countries' internal affairs," he said.

The U.S. notion of "engaging other countries from a position of strength" is just another version of the big bullying the small and "might is right." This is pure coercive diplomacy, he added.

COOPERATION BASED ON MUTUAL TRUST

Cooperation between China and the United States should be based on mutual trust and mutual benefit with a sense of sincerity, Xie stressed.

"The United States cannot expect China to cooperate unconditionally on hotspot issues while suppressing China at the same time," he said.

Xie expounded China's position on COVID-19 origin-tracing, cyber security, as well as issues relating to Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Hong Kong.

Sherman said the United States does not seek to contain China's development, and reiterated adhering to the one-China policy and the stance of not supporting "Taiwan independence".

As permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the United States and China bear major responsibilities for safeguarding peace and security of the world, Sherman said.

Both sides agreed that the talk between Xie and Sherman, which lasted over four hours, was candid and in-depth, and pledged to continue such frank communication.