China’s Foreign Minister Calls On Biden To Restore A Bilateral Relationship

Wang Yi, China’s Foreign Minister called on the United States (US) administration to remove restrictions on trade and people-to-people contacts. China wishes to revive the bilateral relations between the two countries that were damaged under the presidency of Donald Trump.

The Foreign Minister said that the actions of Trump’s administration inflicted immeasurable harm on China. Hence he appealed to eliminate unreasonable tariffs on Chinese goods and discontinue the irrational suppression of the Chinese tech sector.

Another issue of concern for him was the US restriction on Chinese media and students.

The Trump administration while pushing back against alleged communist propaganda, categorized 15 Chinese media entities as foreign missions.

On the people-to-people contact front, the US canceled visas of more than 1,000 Chinese nationals on the pretext of security concerns, in September.

Wang also called the recent talk between the US President, Joe Biden, and the Chinese President Xi Jinping a positive step.

Previously under Trump’s administration, the two countries experienced economic conflict. As a result of the conflict, the US continues to impose tariffs on $335bn of Chinese goods.

In 2020, China and the US reached a phase-one agreement, in which China guaranteed to purchase more American products. However, Beijing missed to meet its trade-deal targets due to the disruption caused to the supply chains by the global pandemic.

China had promised to buy an extra $200bn over the 2017 level in US agriculture, energy, and manufactured products under the agreement.

With the US wanting to curtail the growth of Chinese tech companies, the two countries also clashed over technology. Under Trump’s presidency, the US used export controls, entity lists, and executive orders to block Chinese companies. American goods and consumers were prevented from having access to companies like Huawei Technologies, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, ByteDance Ltd., and Tencent Holdings.

The tariffs imposed by the US during Trump’s presidency sought to punish Beijing over China’s intellectual-property theft, which China has denied. Trump also relied on the Treasury Department’s sanctions system to penalize Chinese authorities associated with the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.

The Foreign Minister additionally encouraged Washington to respect the core interest of China. The Foreign Minister also asked Biden’s administration to stop interfering in the country’s internal affairs. He also advised that the US should stop scheming with separatist forces for Taiwan’s independence. He added that Taiwan was considered to be part of Beijing’s territory.

Wang further said that the US had previously cut off all sort of bilateral dialogue with China completely. However, he assured that China was eager to have open communication with the US that would be aimed at resolving their issues.

The two countries reached their lowest point in decades, with all these trade restrictions. Now that China and the US have taken to renegotiate, it is expected that their trade relations will improve.