BEIJING (AP) – A senior Chinese diplomat said on Friday that US policy towards China is “too negative” and that cooperation could be of critical importance as the Biden administration focuses on fighting COVID-19 and promote economic recovery.
The United States seems to highlight the confrontation and minimize cooperation, Deputy Foreign Minister Le Yucheng said in an extensive interview with The Associated Press.
“I have to say this approach is too negative,” he said, adding that he lacks “a spirit of the future.”
Le also noted that China is unlikely to make any new commitments at a meeting on climate change convened by President Joe Biden for next week. He spoke as Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, who discussed the issue on the second day of closed-door meetings with his Chinese counterparts in Shanghai.
Chinese President Xi Jinping announced last year that China would be carbon neutral by 2060 and aimed to reach its maximum emissions by 2030.
“For a large country with 1.4 billion people, these goals cannot be easily achieved,” Le said. “Some countries are asking China to do more about climate change. I’m afraid that’s not very realistic. “
He told her he had no details about Kerry’s meetings in Shanghai.
Biden has invited 40 world leaders, including Xi, to a virtual climate summit from April 22-23. The United States and other countries are expected to announce more ambitious national targets to reduce carbon emissions and promise financial aid for the climate efforts of less affluent nations.
He told her that China would convey a positive message at the meeting, but added that China is responding to climate change on its own initiative, not because others have asked for it. On whether Xi would join the summit, Le told him that “the Chinese side is actively studying the issue.”
The United States and China have increasingly clashed over a number of issues, including allegations of human rights abuses in Tibet and the Xinjiang region, repression of protest and political freedom in Hong Kong, the statement of China’s territorial claims to Taiwan and the South China Sea and accusations Beijing was slow to inform the world about the COVID-19 outbreak that turned into a devastating global pandemic.
China was expecting an improvement in relations with Biden, which succeeded President Donald Trump in January, but the Biden administration has shown no sign of a setback in hard-line policies towards China. Both sides exchanged sharp and unusually public exchanges at the start of talks in Alaska last month.
He told her that after the opening of the Alaska talks, the dialogue was constructive and useful and that both sides are following up on the issues discussed.
The two countries could be associated with the coronavirus response, he said, but such cooperation must be the same, an apparent reference to U.S. pressure on China on multiple fronts.
“It’s not one side to put together a laundry list of demands on the other side,” Le said. “In cooperation, one should not be selfish and worry only about one’s own interests without regard to the well-being of the other side.”
The same day several pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong were convicted, Defended the repression of China against the protest in the semi-autonomous territory. He described the convicts as rioters and said they “deserve what they receive.”
He added: “I don’t think it’s weird if Hong Kong somehow looks more like a Chinese city because after all Hong Kong is part of China.”
The United Kingdom, the United States and others have accused Beijing of renouncing its commitment to run the former British colony under a framework called “one country, two systems” for 50 years after its handover to the 1997 Chinese government.
He set aside these criticisms, saying, “Hong Kong is always Hong Kong of China and this is something that will not change.”
The deputy minister also condemned sanctions by the United States and other Western countries against companies accused of human rights and labor abuses in Xinjiang.
“They were claimed to protect human rights in Xinjiang and oppose forced labor, but the consequence of the sanctions has damaged human rights in Xinjiang, leading to forced unemployment and forced poverty in Xinjiang,” Le said.