China: Ready to work with US to manage differences
Xi expressed Beijing’s willingness to resolve tensions in a letter even as China lashed out over a visit by US lawmakers to Taiwan
China is ready to properly manage differences with the United States, President Xi Jinping has said, ahead of a virtual meeting with US President Joe Biden.
In a letter read on Tuesday by China’s ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, at a dinner of the National Committee on US-China Relations in Washington, Xi said China was ready to cooperate with the United States on regional and global issues. A date has not been announced for the Xi-Biden meeting but a person briefed on the matter said it was expected to be as soon as next week.
Stakes for the meeting are high - Washington and Beijing have been sparring on issues from the origins of the pandemic to China’s expanding nuclear arsenal - but Biden’s team has so far set low expectations for specific outcomes.
This came even as China reacted with fury on Wednesday to a visit by a delegation of US lawmakers to Taiwan, as tensions between Beijing and Taipei reach their highest in years.
China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its territory. Taiwan’s foreign ministry confirmed the visit was arranged by the American Institute in Taiwan - Washington’s de facto embassy on the island - and said it would provide “necessary administrative assistance”.
Beijing responded by saying the “risky and provocative actions” are “doomed to end in failure”. “Colluding with Taiwan independence forces is a dangerous game and playing with fire will result in burning themselves,” said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin at a press briefing, calling the visit a “clumsy performance”.
‘They don’t understand different cultures’
Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama criticised the leaders of China on Wednesday saying they “don’t understand the variety of different cultures” there and there is too much control by the main Han ethnic group.
But he also said he had nothing against “Chinese brothers and sisters” as fellow humans and he broadly supported the ideas behind Communism and Marxism.
“I know Communist Party leaders since Mao Zedong. Their ideas (are) good. But sometimes they do much extreme, tight control,” he said, adding he thought things would change in China under a new generation of leaders. “Regarding Tibet and also Xinjiang, we have our own unique culture, so the more narrow-minded Chinese Communist leaders, they do not understand the variety of different cultures.”
Noting that China consisted not only of ethnic Han people but also other, different, groups, he added: “In reality, too much control by Han people.”