Outgoing US envoy to China says ties on ‘right road’, don’t veer

BEIJING – America’s top diplomat in China said he spends 80 per cent of his time managing competition with Beijing and 20 per cent on engagement, calling it the right balance, as Washington prepares for a new administration.

This approach has helped stabilise ties between the world’s two largest economies even as they continue to clash over issues including China’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, alleged cyber attacks and the “bullying” of its neighbours, outgoing Ambassador Nicholas Burns said in a Dec 13 interview.

“We’re on the right road here,” Mr Burns said. “And I’m confident that with much more effort and time, we should stay on the right road.”

Mr Burns, who has been in Beijing since March 2022 amid a low point in US-China relations, refrained from commenting on what the new Trump administration should do, saying that would be unfair.

But he defended the Biden government’s approach as being effective.

“Our previous policy of really no cooperation with them, but sanctioning of them, we didn’t see results – we saw zero action,” he said. “That’s why I say we have a choice.”

Among the achievements he listed were collaboration between Washington and Beijing on fentanyl, improved communications between their militaries and a recent prisoner swop.

Meanwhile, US President-elect Donald Trump has taken a tougher tone by

threatening fresh tariffs

if China fails to stop drug traffickers.

Mr Burns said the cooperation on fentanyl was “better than it was at any time over the last six or seven years”.

Beijing arrested 300 of its citizens involved in the trade in precursor chemicals in the past 13 months, and banned the export of 55 precursor chemicals and synthetic drugs, according to Mr Burns. 

“It’s the first time that the government of China has taken such a wide range of actions,” Mr Burns said. 

He will leave China in mid-January and is set to be replaced by

Trump’s nominee for the role, former senator David Perdue.

Mr Burns said the two have exchanged e-mails and he has advised his team at the embassy in Beijing to support Mr Perdue in building the US-China relationship.

Still, he emphasised that US-China ties, which may be some of the most important and complex bilateral relationships in the world, are mainly about competition. 

Mr Burns would not comment on Trump’s tariff threats, saying only that Mr Biden was “right” to maintain the duties that his administration inherited in 2021 and to build on them.

The ambassador reiterated Washington’s concerns that excess Chinese production poses unfair competition and threatens the US industry.

“We cannot afford a second ‘China shock’, where there’s mass loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States,” he said. “We won’t let that happen.”

Mr Burns said China’s cyber aggression is one of the most serious disagreements between the two countries, and repeated US complaints over Chinese support for Russia’s war efforts, allegations Beijing has denied.

He also challenged China’s framing of ties as one led by US actions, saying the future of the relationship hinges on Beijing’s behaviour just as much as Washington’s decisions.

“Any relationship between two great powers is a function of what they do together and the choices they both make,” Mr Burns said. BLOOMBERG