The Biden administration’s Ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, lamented Tuesday that discussions with Beijing have deteriorated in recent months following a series of diplomatic spats.
Burns indicated, in comments made at a Stimson Center event Tuesday, that the Biden administration has made attempts to re-establish talks with China in the months since Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing was cancelled earlier this year. But those efforts have largely been fruitless.
The United States needs more stability in relations with China, does not want a return to the Cold War, said US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns.
According to him, the United States never supported the idea of “freezing” relations” with Beijing and maintained good…
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“Our view is we need better channels between the two governments and deeper channels, and we are ready to talk,” Burns said. “We’ve never been shy of talking, and we hope the Chinese will meet us halfway on this.”
“(I)t’s hard for me to predict at this at this point when this kind of reengagement will reoccur, but we have never supported an icing of this relationship,” he added.
The State Department has stated multiple times in recent months that talks with China on a number of issues have ground to a halt. Beijing has been uncooperative on combatting the fentanyl epidemic and is expanding coal production at a time when the U.S. wants its cooperation on climate change.
Blinken’s much-anticipated trip to China earlier this year was postponed after a Chinese spy balloon traversed the continental United States before being shot down by the Biden administration. The State Department has repeatedly claimed the trip is only “postponed,” not “cancelled,” and that the trip will eventually be rescheduled when “conditions are right.” (RELATED: Biden’s Ambassador To China: CCP ‘Infinitely Stronger’ Than Soviet Union ‘Ever Was’)
Climate czar John Kerry has also complained about being cut off from talks with China, although he says he is planning a trip to meet his counterpart there in the near future.