U.S. ambassador's remarks 'no good' for China-U.S. ties, says Beijing

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday rejected the remarks of the United States' ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, saying they are not conducive to the sound and stable development of bilateral relations.

"It is not China but the United States that is interfering with and hindering people-to-people exchanges between the two countries," said Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the ministry, in response to Burns' accusations in an interview that Beijing is making it "impossible" to reconnect the two peoples.

The ambassador's remarks are not facts, but a departure from the important common understandings reached between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden at the San Francisco meeting, said Mao.

"They are not the right way for China and the U.S. to get along with each other, and not conducive to the sound and stable development of bilateral relations."

During their meeting in San Francisco in November 2023, Xi and Biden agreed to promote and strengthen dialogue and cooperation between the two countries in various areas, including expanding educational, student, youth, cultural, sports and business exchanges.

"The Chinese side has always developed China-U.S. relations in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation proposed by President Xi, and is committed to promoting people-to-people exchanges between the two countries," said Mao on Wednesday.

She noted that the "Bond with Kuliang: 2024 China-U.S. Youth Festival" is being held in Fuzhou of east China's Fujian Province, and called it the largest in size and richest in form of its kind since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the U.S. in 1979.

The spokesperson said the U.S. is disrupting the people-to-people exchanges with China.

The U.S. has used national security as a pretext to harass and repatriate Chinese students for no apparent reason, causing great harm to them and creating a grave chilling effect, said Mao.

The image of the U.S. in the eyes of the Chinese people depends fundamentally on the U.S. itself, she said.

The spokesperson urged the U.S. to work with China to make real efforts to promote people-to-people exchanges between the two countries and the sound and stable development of bilateral ties.