BEIJING, Aug 23(ABC): 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.