Chinese Foreign Ministry refutes wrongful remarks by U.S. Ambassador to China concerning Taiwan region

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday refuted U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns' wrongful remarks concerning the Taiwan region, noting his remarks confound right with wrong, and once again show the distorted and hegemonic logic of the United States.

On August 19, Burns said in his interview with CNN that China overreacted to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, and China has now become an agent of instability in the Taiwan Strait and manufactured the crisis in U.S.-China relations. He also mentioned that Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng summoned him after the plane carrying Pelosi landed in Taiwan, describing the meeting as "quite contentious."

Answering a media query regarding Burns' remarks, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that before Pelosi's provocative visit to China's Taiwan region, the Chinese side made serious demarches to the U.S. side at various levels to repeatedly tell the United States the grave nature and serious harm of the visit and made it clear that all consequences arising therefrom should be borne by the U.S. side. It would be unfair to say that the United States had not been warned about the consequences if the visit took place, said the spokesperson.

Right after Pelosi's arrival in Taiwan, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng urgently summoned Ambassador Burns to make a serious demarche and strong protest to the U.S. side on behalf of the Chinese government. He pointed out that the United States insisted on following through with its wrong decision and must pay the price for it. He also urged the U.S. side to immediately redress the mistake by taking concrete actions to undo the egregious impact of Pelosi's visit.

However, instead of reflecting on its wrongdoing and changing course, the U.S. side has sought to deflect the blame on China. Several senior U.S. officials have made public statements one after another that mischaracterized the course of events. They sought to explain away the U.S. responsibility for escalating tensions in the Taiwan Strait and depict China as the guilty party, said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson noted that on the night of August 8, Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng summoned Ambassador Burns once again to make serious demarche over the U.S. reckless remarks on China's countermeasures against Pelosi's provocative visit to Taiwan. He made it clear that it is the United States, not China, that started the crisis; it is the United States, not China, that has changed the status quo across the Taiwan Strait; it is the United States, not China, that has undermined cross-Strait peace and stability; it is the United States, not China, that has been flexing muscles across the world, particularly in the Asia-Pacific; it is the United States, not China, that has been wielding the big stick of sanction and bullying the world; it is the United States, not China, that has shaken the political foundation of China-U.S. relations and shown no sincerity at all about communication; and it is the United States, not China, that has sabotaged China-U.S. cooperation.

The Chinese side pointed to the plain fact that it is the United States that made provocations first, imposed an avoidable crisis on the Chinese people, and yet falsely accused China of starting the crisis; it is the United States that has applied the salami-slicing tactics to repeatedly cross the red line and undermine the one-China principle and the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, and yet falsely accused China of changing the status quo; it is the United States that has been conducting gunboat diplomacy at China's doorstep, and yet sought to stigmatize and demonize China's legitimate, lawful, professional and transparent military drills; it is the United States that has been undermining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and yet it tries to shift the blame for making provocations and escalating tensions onto China; it is the United States that blatantly infringed on China's sovereignty and territorial integrity and trampled on China's red line, yet it falsely accused China of overreacting and manufacturing the crisis. What the United States has done has completely gone over the line. It is not China that is being irresponsible. It is Pelosi and the U.S. government that are being extremely irresponsible, said the spokesperson.

"I want to reiterate that the one-China principle is at the heart of China's core interests. No country, force, or individual shall ever underestimate the firm resolve, staunch will and strong capability of the Chinese Government and people to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity and to achieve national reunification and rejuvenation," said the spokesperson.

China once again urges the U.S. side to abide by the basic norms of international relations, including respecting other countries' sovereignty and territorial integrity and non-interference in others' internal affairs, return to the right path of the one-China principle and the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques, and stop doing anything that undermines China's core interests, the spokesperson said.