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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》US envoy on ‘contentious’ China meeting
Nicholas Burns in Washington on Oct. 20 last year gives his opening statement during a US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing on his nomination to be the US ambassador to China. Photo: Reuters
‘SPIRITED’ TALKS: The US ambassador to China said he was summoned to a meeting as Pelosi was landing in Taiwan, calling China’s response to her visit an ‘overreaction’
By Jake Chung / Staff writer
China must act peacefully in the Taiwan Strait and convince the international community that it is not an “agent of instability,” US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said yesterday in his first televised interview since taking up his post six months ago.
“We do not believe there should be a crisis in US-China relations over the visit — the peaceful visit — of the speaker of the [US] House of Representatives to Taiwan ... it was a manufactured crisis by the government in Beijing. It was an overreaction,” Burns told CNN in an exclusive interview from the US embassy in Beijing on Friday.
The strict COVID-19 prevention policies enacted by Beijing have significantly reduced China’s diplomatic activities, meaning representatives such as Burns have become the first line of contact between their countries and Beijing.
“We had a very spirited, I would say quite contentious meeting,” Burns said, referring an Aug. 2 meeting he was summoned to attend with Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Xie Feng （謝鋒）.
As Burns described it, it was the exact moment that the plane carrying US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her congressional delegation landed in Taipei.
Burns said he defended Pelosi and her right to travel to Taiwan, as well as the nearly six decades of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, adding that he challenged Xie to make an assurance that the Chinese government would act in ways that promoted peace and stability.
Beijing’s choreographed response of launching missiles over Taiwan sought to “intimidate and coerce the Taiwan authorities” and it has “conducted a global campaign” blaming the US for what it sees as undermining stability in the Taiwan Strait, Burns said.
Asked if Beijing might take lessons from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that could be applied to Taiwan, Burns said the US is “watching China very carefully as it conducts its relationship with Russia.”
“We have been very clear that there will be consequences if there is systemic Chinese government support for Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine,” he said, adding that no such support had been seen.
Burns said he was “disturbed” by Beijing’s narrative seeking to blame the US and NATO for Russia’s war in Ukraine and has shared these views with his Chinese counterparts.
Burns said he urged China to meet the US “halfway” so that both sides can work toward the greater good, adding: “You have to show up at the negotiating table to cooperate.”
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
