China’s ambassador to the US warned on Wednesday that the country has “red lines” on Taiwan, human rights and other issues that cannot be crossed, ahead of this week’s meeting in Washington between the two countries’ leaders.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Washington for a summit with President Donald Trump, as both sides look to bring stability to ties overshadowed by arguments over everything from trade to Taiwan. China claims democratically-governed Taiwan as its own territory, despite the objections of the government in Taipei. The US is Taiwan’s most important arms supplier and international backer despite the lack of formal ties.
Writing in the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, Ambassador Xie Feng said managing differences hinges on good faith, and the US should stop “fabricating pretexts” such as national security, economic imbalances and forced labour to try to and constrain China. “China’s sovereignty, security, and development interests cannot be violated, and four red lines — the Taiwan question, democracy and human rights, development paths and systems, and development rights — cannot be challenged,” Xie said. Xie said that top-level diplomacy is the “steady hand” of China-US relations and differences are not to be feared. A separate commentary on Wednesday in the same newspaper said the US’s “erroneous” perceptions of China and its inability to let go of the notion of strategic competition are the basic causes of their recent difficult relationship.
