BEIJING: The unofficial nature of the latest meeting between Chinese and United States senior diplomats points to the serious damage that Washington has brought to its ties with Beijing and the dire need to repair the great shortage of mutual trust, observers said.
They made the observation as senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi met in “an unofficial engagement” with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the request of the US side on the sidelines of the 59th Munich Security Conference on Saturday.
Wang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, made explicit “China’s solemn position on the so-called airship incident”, according to a statement by the Foreign Ministry.
He asked the US to “change course (and) acknowledge and repair the damage that its excessive use of force caused to China-US relations”.
Earlier this month, the US military shot down a Chinese unmanned airship that was spotted in US airspace, triggering Beijing’s strong protests.
China reiterated that the civilian unmanned airship, due to the Westerlies — prevailing winds from the west — and limited self-steering capability, deviated from its planned course and entered US airspace.
Before and following the shooting down of the airship, some senior US officials and politicians hyped the airship and China’s so-called “threat” to the US.
An unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesperson quoted Wang on Sunday as saying at the talks with Blinken that “the US is in no position to smear China. What the US needs to do is demonstrate sincerity and face up to and resolve the damage that its abuse of force has done to China-US relations”.
Wang said that “if the US continues to dramatize, hype up or escalate the situation, China will surely respond by doing what is necessary”, and “all consequences arising thereof shall be borne by the US side”, according to the spokesperson. Wu Xinbo, dean of Fudan University’s Institute of International Studies, noted that since the meeting between President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden in Bali, Indonesia, in November, the two governments’ working teams from diplomacy, security, treasury and trade departments have embarked on dialogue to further implement the consensus reached by the two leaders.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
