China rebukes Biden for predicting relations will thaw shortly
Misty Severi
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A Chinese government spokeswoman criticized President Joe Biden on Monday after he predicted that tensions between the United States and China will thaw soon.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning questioned whether there was any “sincerity” in Biden’s comments, which were made over the weekend, and called for the U.S. to lift its sanctions against China in order to create a “favorable atmosphere and conditions for dialogue” and communication.
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“China and the U.S. maintain necessary communication. However, now the U.S. says it wants to speak to the Chinese side while seeking to suppress China through all possible means and impose sanctions on Chinese officials, institutions, and companies,” Ning told reporters on Monday. “Is there any sincerity in and significance of any communication like this?”
Ning’s concerns come after Biden said he expected to see a relaxation in tensions between the two countries while attending the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, this past weekend.
During a press conference at the summit, Biden referred to the Chinese surveillance balloon debacle as a “silly balloon” incident and said that “everything changed in terms of talking to one another. I think you’re going to see that begin to thaw very shortly.”
There was miscommunication at the summit on whether the U.S. would even consider lifting some of its sanctions against China, including sanctions on its defense minister Li Shangfu. However, State Department spokesman Mathew Miller walked back the president’s comment on whether lifting some sanctions against China was “under negotiation.”
“[It is] very much not so,” Miller told a reporter. “He [Biden] also made clear that we are not planning to lift any sanctions on him [China’s defense minister] or on China more broadly.”
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The president also joined the other global leaders at the summit in calling for China to urge Russia to end its war in Ukraine.
Tensions between the U.S. and China escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic and have only increased after China expressed support for Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. China has also unsettled Western governments by flexing its military power over Taiwan, and through its handling of the spy balloon incident.