Onus on Washington to reopen exchange channels

This photo taken on March 21, 2023 shows metal barricades placed near the Capitol building in Washington, DC, the United States. [Photo/Xinhua]

By Li Yang

Except for the communication channels on climate change, those for almost all other fields between China and the United States have largely remained closed since the Joe Biden administration allowed China hawks to hype up the so-called Chinese spy balloon incident in February to hijack its China policy.

That shook Beijing's fledging confidence after the two countries' leaders met in Bali, Indonesia, in November last year, and the US side pledged to appropriately handle bilateral ties.

Despite Beijing reiterating that if US Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled his scheduled visit to China in February, citing the balloon incident as an excuse, Washington would be accountable for all the consequences of its decision, the Biden administration still called off the trip, in a bid to show its tough stance against China to distract the American public's attention from the administration's failure to address urgent issues at home.

Also, the Biden administration has intensified its strategy to contain China since February. For instance, it has sanctioned dozens of Chinese companies, held massive military drills with its allies in the Asia-Pacific region with China as the target, kept provoking Beijing on the Taiwan question, and made every possible effort to sow discord between China and the European Union and other economies.

Yet senior officials from various US departments have been expressing their willingness to resume talks with their Chinese counterparts as early as possible.

The latest such official is Blinken, who told the media on Wednesday that he hoped to reschedule his visit to China this year, saying: "I think it's important ... that we re-establish regular lines of communication at all levels and across our government."

A day earlier, speaking via video link at a US-based think tank event, Nicholas Burns, US ambassador to China, said that the Biden administration is "ready to talk" with China, noting that "our view is we need better channels between the two governments and deeper channels".

These US officials should be reminded that Beijing has made it clear that the US side has to match its words with its actions, and only then the communication channels can be reopened for dialogue. The ball is in the Biden administration's court now. It has to show its "readiness", if not sincerity, for dialogue with China, and stop paying just lip service to bilateral ties.