TMTPOST -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for a right way to handle China-U.S. relationship in a new era, cautioning U.S. President Donald Trump’s China hawk team against any challenges of red lines like Taiwan issue.
Credit：Xinhua News Agency
During a phone conversation with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio held at the latter's request on Friday, Wang recalled “an important phone call” between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Trump last week that led to a series of consensus, the state news agency Xinhua reported.
Xi comprehensively expounded China's policy to the United States, and Trump responded positively, expressing his expectation to maintain good relations with Xi and emphasizing that U.S.-China cooperation can solve many problems in the world, the reported quoted Wang.
The minister said China and U.S. should follow through on the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, maintain communication, control differences, expand cooperation based on the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, promote the stable, healthy and sustainable development of China-U.S. relations, and find the right way for China and the United States to get along in the new era, according to the report on Friday.
With a goal to deliver a better life to the people and make greater contributions to the world, China has no intention to overtake or replace any country, but must safeguard its legitimate rights to development, according to Wang.
Wang in the phone talk called Washington to handle the Taiwan question with caution. Taiwan has been an integral part of China's territory since ancient times, Wang said, stressing that China will never allow Taiwan to be separated from the motherland. Wang noted that the United States made solemn commitments to the one-China policy in the three China-U.S. joint communiques and should not go back on its word.
Wang in the conversations asked Rubio, a harsh China critic who was one of U.S. officials China sanctioned twice in 2020, to be responsible for his own actions, or hao zi wei zhi, a Chinese idiom that conveys a sense of caution that one should consider the consequences of one’s actions, according to the Foreign Ministry’s statement. While the English version of the account, published by Xinhua , doesn’t have those words of warning, it said Wang expressed his hope that Rubio would make the right decisions and play a constructive role for the future of the Chinese and the American people, as well as for global peace and stability.
Describing U.S.-China relations as the most important bilateral relationship of the 21st century, Rubio said the United States is willing to engage in candid communication with China, resolve differences properly, manage bilateral relations in a mature and cautious way, jointly address global challenges and maintain world peace and stability, Xinhua reported. It cited Rubio that the U.S. does not support "Taiwan independence" and hopes the Taiwan question can be resolved by peaceful means which are acceptable to both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Rubio emphasized that the Trump Administration will pursue a U.S.-China relationship that advances U.S. interests and puts the American people first, the U.S. State of Department said in a statement. The Secretary of State also stressed the United States’ commitment to its allies in the region and serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan and in the South China Sea, according to the statement.
Wang’s talk with Rubio, the new secretary of state who has been a critic of Beijing, signaled Beijing is willing to get down to business with the Trump administration, the Wall Street Journal report. The report believes the call also indicated China was prepared to work around the sanctions to engage with Rubio as Trump has shown a willingness to negotiate with Beijing as opposed to starting a trade war right away.
Rubio has taken a particularly aggressive approach to China’s economic rise, and is one of several U.S. officials barred from entering China, starting from Trump’s first term in 2020. Rubio is hawkish against all the usual suspects, a report from the Foreign Policy commented last November. “He is suspicious of, if not belligerent, toward China, hostile to Iran, not keen on Venezuela, rueful of the Cuba his parents left, and indifferent toward Gaza and Ukraine,” the report said. ”The only problem with Rubio, from Trump’s point of view, is that he might be too hawkish.”
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