Washington urged to stop ‘demonizing’ China

BEIJING (AFP) – Beijing urged the US to stop “demonizing” China during yesterday’s talks with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the highest-level official to visit under President Joe Biden’s administration.

Sherman arrived in the city of Tianjin on Sunday, aiming to seek “guardrails” as ties between the world’s top two economies continue to deteriorate on a range of issues from cybersecurity to human rights.

“The hope may be that by demonizing China, the US could somehow... blame China for its own structural problems,” Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng told Sherman, in a readout issued by China’s foreign ministry.

“We urge the United States to change its highly misguided mindset and dangerous policy,” the statement quoted Xie as saying, adding that Washington views China as an “imagined enemy.”

Xie also described relations as at a “stalemate” and facing “serious difficulties.”

He claimed that Chinese people view the US’ “adversarial rhetoric as a thinly veiled attempt to contain and suppress China,” in comments reminiscent of the fiery March exchange between Washington and Beijing’s top diplomats Antony Blinken and Yang Jiechi in Alaska.

Sherman will also meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. She tweeted Sunday that she had spoken with US businesses about “the challenges they’re facing in China,” and also sent her “heartfelt condolences” to flood victims in Henan province.

The US said last week it was hoping to use the “candid” talks as an opportunity to show Beijing “what responsible and healthy competition looks like,” but wanted to avoid the relationship veering into “conflict.”