BEIJING (AFP): China’s foreign minister said Tuesday that relations with the United States “stabilised” last year, as the two powers seek to put ties on a surer footing in 2024.
Beijing and Washington have butted heads in recent years on flashpoint issues from technology and trade to human rights, as well as tensions over Taiwan and competing claims in the South China Sea.
In a bid to ease some of the worst tensions in decades, President Joe Biden met Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November for talks that both sides described as a qualified success.
And speaking at Beijing’s opulent Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on Tuesday, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi admitted relations had “encountered serious difficulties at the beginning of (last) year”.
The veteran diplomat said Beijing “expressed its solemn position, demanding that the United States change its misunderstanding of China and return to a rational and pragmatic China policy”.
“After hard work, the two sides have restructured communication and dialogue, and bilateral relations have stopped falling and stabilised,” Wang added.
But Wang’s rosy assessment belied continued key sources of tension between the powers.
Elections are due this week in the self-ruled island of Taiwan, a key flashpoint between the US and China.
Beijing claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has not ruled out seizing it by force, while the United States is Taiwan’s main security backer and has warned China against acting aggressively towards the self-ruled island democracy.
The two sides have also clashed over China’s increasingly assertive policy in the South China Sea, which it claims almost in its entirety despite an international tribunal ruling that its assertions have no legal basis.
Wang on Tuesday stressed that Biden had pledged to Xi that the US “does not support Taiwan independence” during their meeting last year.
He also framed China as a “responsible” power that “always held fast to justice and stood for fairness” as well as “resolutely opposes hegemonism and power politics”.
“The world today is by no means peaceful, and using power for bullying is extremely harmful,” Wang warned.
US sailor who spied for China sentenced to 27 months
A US Navy petty officer who pleaded guilty to providing sensitive military information to a Chinese intelligence officer was sentenced to more than two years in prison on Monday, the US Justice Department said.
Wenheng Zhao, 26, and another US sailor, Jinchao Wei, were arrested in August on suspicion of spying for China.
Zhao pleaded guilty in a federal court in California in October to charges of conspiring with a foreign intelligence officer and accepting a bribe.
He was sentenced on Monday to 27 months in prison and a $5,500 fine.
According to US officials, Zhao, who was stationed at a naval base north of Los Angeles, received nearly $15,000 from the Chinese intelligence officer between August 2021 and May 2023.
In exchange, he handed over sensitive information regarding US Navy operational security, exercises and critical infrastructure.
Zhao specifically provided information about a large-scale maritime training exercise in the Pacific and electrical diagrams and blueprints for a radar system located in Okinawa, Japan.
“Mr. Zhao betrayed his solemn oath to defend his country and endangered those who serve in the US military,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said in a statement.
“The Justice Department is committed to combatting the Chinese government’s efforts to undermine our nation’s security and holding accountable those who violate our laws as part of those efforts.”
Wei, who served on the amphibious assault ship the USS Essex, is accused of handing over to China dozens of documents, photos and videos detailing the operation of ships and their systems.
