US and China ambassadors identify areas of cooperation as well as danger zones
South China Morning Post
5 min read
US and Chinese envoys commemorated the 45th anniversary of official diplomatic ties on Tuesday by mixing warm sentiments about last year's summit between their leaders with warnings about Taiwan and trade restrictions that suggested the two sides are far from understanding each other's intentions.
Washington's ambassador to Beijing, Nicholas Burns, addressed an audience at the Carter Centre in Atlanta via video, praised the Chinese government for "concrete action" to block the flow of fentanyl precursors from the US and restarting military-to-military dialogue while underscoring Washington's hard line on sales of advanced technology to China.
His comments came hours before the Pentagon announced the resumption of high-level military-to-military discussions - the US-PRC Defence Policy Coordination Talks - which were halted when bilateral tensions boiled over in 2022. Restarting the talks was one of the pledges made during the summit in November in California.
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"We've seen action, real action, concrete action by the government in Beijing to begin to shut off the flow of precursor chemicals, to take action against those Chinese companies that were involved," Burns said, before turning to the need for technology export restrictions.
US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, shown in December, praised Beijing for its "concrete actions" taken against Chinese companies involved in the production and export of fentanyl precursors. Photo: Xinhua alt=US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, shown in December, praised Beijing for its "concrete actions" taken against Chinese companies involved in the production and export of fentanyl precursors. Photo: Xinhua>
"We simply are not going to allow the People's Liberation Army to acquire our most sensitive technology so that it can compete with us militarily, and there'll be no compromise on those advanced semiconductors, and other technology restrictions that we've put into place," he added.
A string of moves by US President Joe Biden's administration to restrict the provision of advanced US technology to China has been a bilateral sore point; Beijing contends the actions amount to an effort to undercut the competitiveness of Chinese companies.
In August, Biden announced new restrictions on investments that American companies could make in China in the areas of "semiconductors and micro electronics, quantum information technologies and certain artificial intelligence systems".
Two months later, the administration expanded restrictions on China's access to advanced chips and chipmaking tools announced a year earlier, to address efforts by companies like Nvidia to design products that could skirt the rules.
Speaking to the Carter Centre audience in a pre-recorded video address, Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng seemed to cite these restrictions as an impediment to better relations.
Xie suggested that Washington's characterisation of China as a "competitor" - a term used by the US State Department to describe some areas in which the two sides engage - as akin to "containment".
"If one sees the other side as a primary competitor, a 'pacing threat' and a target for containment, improving and stabilising bilateral relationship would be out of the question," he said.
The White House and top Pentagon officials have described China as a "pacing threat", and Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping during their summit in November that the two countries "are in competition".
The two sides also remain far apart on Taiwan, which Beijing pledges to reunite with the mainland by force if necessary, while the US government has increased engagements with officials on the self-ruled island to bolster economic ties.
Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng, shown in September, warned that restrictions on tech exports to China might worsen contentious relations. Photo: Robert Delaney alt=Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng, shown in September, warned that restrictions on tech exports to China might worsen contentious relations. Photo: Robert Delaney>
Differences over Taiwan reached a head in 2022, when then House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei, a move that prompted Beijing to cut nearly all high-level bilateral dialogues.
"The US should abide by the one-China principle and the three Sino-US joint communiques with concrete actions, [and] earnestly deliver on the statements by American leaders that the United States does not support Taiwan independence," Xie said.
Burns called Beijing's reaction to Pelosi's visit "excessive" and did not reiterate the oft-stated position that Washington does not support Taiwanese independence.
Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take the island by force and is committed to supporting its defence capability.
Despite their crosswise comments on Taiwan and tech restrictions, the two envoys appeared upbeat on some fronts in addition to fentanyl and resumption of high-level miliary-to-military dialogue.
They expressed optimism on joint efforts to control the use of artificial intelligence, which Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to during their summit, and hinted that this effort would be aimed at the dangers of incorporating the technology in autonomous weapons.
Talks on artificial intelligence would be aimed at "enhancing global AI governance and jointly managing risks and challenges brought by the technology so that the 'Terminator' scenario, where machines wage war against humans, will not become a reality" Xie said.
However, on that note, Burns suggested that the two sides are still working out who would need to be involved in the talks.
"We have to decide who should be at the table," he said. "In the case of the United States, I would say obviously, representatives of our government, but also of our private sector, where much of the expertise in artificial intelligence resides."
The Pentagon announcement, which came out just hours after Burns and Xie spoke, underscored improving bilateral ties in the military realm.
Michael Chase, deputy assistant secretary of defence for China, Taiwan and Mongolia, met with Chinese Major General Song Yanchao, deputy director of the Central Military Commission Office for International Military Cooperation, on Monday and Tuesday at the Pentagon for the policy coordination dialogue, according to a Pentagon statement.
As with Burns, Chase's discussion also included positive and contentious messaging.
While highlighting "the importance of maintaining open lines of military-to-military communication in order to prevent competition from veering into conflict", Chase rebuked Beijing's military "harassment against lawfully operating Philippine vessels in the South China Sea", the Pentagon said.
Chinese and Philippine vessels have been clashing in waters near the Scarborough Shoal and the Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. Both shoals are claimed by Manila, which has built closer military ties with the US in response to these tensions, and Beijing.
