Doublespeak, contradiction at their worst

This is an editorial from China Daily.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi's latest visit to the United States indicates the thawing of Sino-US relations — not least because during the visit he met with US President Joe Biden and his top aides, and reached an agreement on arranging a meeting between the two countries' leaders on the sidelines of the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in San Francisco later this month.

But just as it appeared Sino-US relations were stabilizing, Washington was back playing its provocative geopolitical game across the Taiwan Strait, and thus interfering in China's internal affairs.

By sailing its destroyer, USS Rafael Peralta (along with Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Ottawa), through the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, the US is ostensibly signaling its support for the separatist Democratic Progressive Party authorities in the Chinese island of Taiwan. That is a gross violation of the one-China principle.

This is the third joint "transit" of US and Canadian military vessels through the Taiwan Strait since June, and instead of helping improve Sino-US ties, they will damage Washington's credibility, and escalate tensions across the Strait.

In fact, Wang had stressed in a meeting with representatives of the US strategic community last week that the road to San Francisco won't be smooth. Hot on the heels of Wang's visit, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen received a letter urging her to toughen her approach toward China and take measures to implement US President Biden's recent Executive Order on restricting US investment in China.

The Aug 9 order authorizes the Treasury to prohibit or restrict US investments in Chinese enterprises involved in sectors such as semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies and certain artificial intelligence systems. Despite Beijing's "strong dissatisfaction, resolute opposition" and "solemn representations", China hawks in US Congress have said the latest move against China is "too soft" and "porous".

The Oct 10 letter from the chairman of the so -called House select committee on China urged Yellen to implement the executive order as soon as possible and as broadly as possible.

And now comes another US move challenging China's sovereignty and territorial integrity. One can understand the US' anxiety over whether and how it can outcompete China in what in Washington's eyes is a decisive decade. But not everyone in Washington's policy circles believes overly broad investment controls will not hurt the US too. Washington's adventurous military maneuvers and not-so-covert support to the separatist forces in Taiwan, seemingly to trigger a conflict, will also not leave it unscarred.

The future of Sino-US relations is win-win cooperation and fair competition, or there is no future at all.