China’s State Councillor and Foreign Minister, Wang Yi has called on the new US administration to adjust its problematic policies on China “as soon as possible”, to bring bilateral ties to the right track.

Addressing the Lanting Forum on Promoting Dialogue and Cooperation and Managing Differences: Bringing China-US Relations Back to the Right Track, Wang said “Over the past few years, the US cut off bilateral dialogue at all levels, and this was one of the main reasons for the deterioration in China-US relations.”

He posited that to right the wrongs and bring China-US relations back to the right track, the “walls of misperceptions must be torn down first to clear the way for knowing, learning and understanding China.

“We know that the new US administration is reviewing and assessing its foreign policy. We hope US policymakers will keep pace with the time, see clearly the trend of the world, abandon biases, give up unwarranted suspicions, and move to bring the China policy back to reason to ensure a healthy and steady development of China-US relations.”
Wang Yi

China has maintained that the US should respect its sovereignty and Wang in his speech, iterated that the two countries should respect each other and not interfere in each other’s internal affairs, as he drew “the red lines” that can’t be crossed.

“We urge the United States to stop smearing the Communist Party of China and China’s political system, stop conniving with or even supporting the erroneous words and actions of separatist forces for ‘Taiwan independence,’ and stop undermining China’s sovereignty and security on internal affairs concerning Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet.

“We hope that the US will adjust its policies as soon as possible, among others, remove unreasonable tariffs on Chinese goods, lift its unilateral sanctions on Chinese companies and research and educational institutes, and abandon the irrational suppression of China’s technological progress, so as to create necessary conditions for China-US cooperation.”

The Foreign Minister said to bring China-US relations back to the right back, it is important to clear the path for the resumption of bilateral exchanges in all areas, and China is ready to work with the US with an open mind to build a good environment for people-to-people exchanges.

“COVID-19, climate change and world economic recovery are the three most pressing tasks for the international community. As a major responsible country, China is ready to coordinate policies and work with the United States in these three areas for the good of the world.”

Also addressing the forum via video link, Henry Paulson, a former US Treasury secretary, intimated that he’s “pleased that Joe Biden is now President” because it “will result in more predictable policies and less inflammatory rhetoric.”

He stated that China and the US need “to minimize the likelihood of debilitating conflict and make progress on areas of mutual interest. The US and China must decide how and where to compete and how to avoid conflict. If we don’t, the world will be a very dangerous place.

“Our two nations will face increasing pressures to decouple, driven primarily by national security concerns…there are problems that we simply cannot mitigate and solve without at least some coordination, if not cooperation.”
Henry Paulson

Paulson admonished that going forward, the relationship between the two countries “is going to be competitive in every domain – technological, economic, financial, military, and ideological,” and “The US and China are going to be locked in strategic competition for a long time.”