China Refusing Critical Communications With US, Aligning With Russia: US Ambassador

Former U.S. ambassador to NATO ambassador Nicholas Burns testifies during a U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing about Russian activities in other countries' elections, on Capitol Hill in Washington, on June 28, 2017. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

China’s communist regime continues to block communications with senior U.S. officials and is increasingly refusing to participate in dialogues about Russia and Taiwan, according to a senior U.S. diplomat.

The United States and China’s communist regime continue to have “major disagreements” on a number of critical issues, including Russia and Taiwan, said U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, but the Biden administration maintains it does not want a “conflict” or “cold war” with the regime.

“It’s a complicated relationship. It’s very competitive,” Burns said during a May 2 talk at the Stimson Center, a D.C.-based think tank.

The Biden administration is not seeking to decouple the U.S. economy from China but will continue to take exceptional measures like the CHIPS Act to protect industries critical to national security, he added.

“We’re not looking at a separation of these two economies, but there are areas where we have taken and will continue to take measures that would protect our national security interests,” Burns said.

China Cuts Communications With US

Clearly communicating the nation’s intent to China and understanding China’s own perspectives is increasingly difficult, Burns said, largely because the regime has systematically shut down critical avenues of communication in recent months.

“Access [to China] for all the members of our government … has really ebbed and flowed,” Burns said. “Our view is we need better channels between the two governments, and better channels, and we are ready to talk.”

The Biden administration has never sought to cut communications with China, but China’s communist leadership had become tight-lipped since illegally flying a spy balloon over the United States in February, which was subsequently shot down.

“We’ve never been shy of talking and we hope the Chinese will meet us halfway on this,” Burns said. “We had a pretty good pattern of communication until the balloon incident, and that coincided with a public disagreement between us on the issue of Chinese assistance to Russia for Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine.”

CCP Aligns With Russia

The issue of Russia and the regime’s possible military support for it continues to be a point of contention, Burns said.

The Biden administration has long warned that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China as a single-party state, could supply Russia with weapons to use in its attempted conquest of Ukraine.

Some independent reports claim that the regime has already own so. A February report by German media outlet Der Spiegel alleges that the regime has disguised military aviation equipment as civil in nature and likewise sent drones to Russia via proxies in the Middle East.

To this day, Burns said, the regime parrots Russian propaganda that the United States and NATO provoked the war.

“The press here is blaming the United States and blaming NATO for the war in Ukraine,” Burns said.

Burns added that a “central issue” was the possibility of CCP military assistance, and said the regime would need to be much tougher on Russia if it were to be taken seriously by the international community as a seeker of peace in Eastern Europe.

“We would like to see China be much more tough-minded on Russia,” Burns said.

“What we need to see from China is to push Russia to withdraw its troops so that Ukraine can have all its territory back and can be fully sovereign again in all aspects of that word.”

CCP Threats Against Taiwan Continue

Similarly, Burns lamented the regime’s continued dedication to building up its military with the apparent goal of invading and conquering Taiwan.

“The Chinese position often articulated here in Beijing … is that they say that they want a peaceful resolution of cross-strait differences, but they reserve the right to the use of force,” Burns said.

“Of course, we reject that.”

The CCP claims that Taiwan is a breakaway territory, though it has never controlled the island. Taiwan, meanwhile, maintains a democratic government, thriving market economy, and legal agreements with the United States to purchase the weapons it needs to maintain its self-defense.

Such has been the status quo on the Taiwan issue since 1979, Burns said, and the United States would categorically reject any non-peaceful attempt by the CCP to alter that state of affairs.

“Any resolution of the cross-strait differences has to be peaceful,” Burns said. “They know our position on this issue.”