‘I wouldn’t say I’m optimistic’ about state of China relations, says US ambassador to Beijing Nicholas Burns
- Burns’s comments follow recent signals from both sides that they plan to address some of the deep divisions that have destabilised the US-China relationship
- Calling China a ‘systemic rival,’ Burns says that because Washington is both competing and engaging, the relationship ‘doesn’t render into simple analysis’
“Hopeful” and “realistic”, but not “optimistic”.
That was the assessment on Friday from America’s ambassador to Beijing about recent efforts by US President Joe Biden’s administration to stabilise the US-China relationship.
In a wide-ranging discussion at the Brookings Institution that hit on all the familiar notes about the challenge that China presents for the US, Ambassador Nicholas Burns referred to the country as a “systemic rival”, but said that because Washington is both competing and engaging, the relationship “doesn’t render into simple analysis”.
Other examples of the complex diplomatic grey zone include disappointment over the State Department’s assessment that Beijing has taken Moscow’s side in Russia’s war against Ukraine, along with confidence that the Kremlin is not yet getting Chinese lethal weapons.
President Xi Jinping’s stated goal of having some 50,000 American students in China – the kind of exchange that Burns said was necessary for the next generation of US policymakers – clashed with the way Beijing “unremittingly” hammers Washington’s reputation in its media and blames America for the Russian invasion.