U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns has drawn the ire of his Chinese Communist hosts, who issued a high-profile rebuke after the envoy outlined American advantages in the strategic competition.
“We noted that Ambassador Burns has recently made negative comments on China on multiple occasions,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a state media outlet during a press briefing. “We oppose defining the bilateral relations with competition and smearing and attacking China.”
The official maintained that Burns’s remarks about the competitive nature of the relationship are inconsistent with President Joe Biden’s dialogue with Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November. The rebuke was triggered by Burns’s latest acknowledgment of the “competition underway for military power and military influence” during a public event in which he expressed a marked optimism about U.S. prospects
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