Candidate for ambassador to China takes tough line on Beijing

WASHINGTON • President Joe Biden's nominee to be US ambassador to China, Mr Nicholas Burns, took a tough line on dealings with China at his Senate confirmation hearing, saying "genocide in Xinjiang", abuses in Tibet, and bullying of Taiwan must stop.

Mr Burns, calling China the United States' "most dangerous competitor", said Beijing is "blasting past" its pledge to maintain only a minimum nuclear deterrent, and added that Washington should work with allies in Europe and elsewhere to build economic leverage.

Human rights advocates and the US government have termed China's treatment of Uighur Muslims in its Xinjiang region "genocide", a characterisation that China rejects.

"The PRC's genocide in Xinjiang, its abuses in Tibet, its smothering of Hong Kong's autonomy and freedoms, and its bullying of Taiwan are unjust and must stop," Mr Burns said on Wednesday, using the abbreviation for the People's Republic of China.

The 65-year-old career diplomat, a former ambassador to Nato, also said Washington is correct in adhering to its current "one China" policy on Taiwan, but right to oppose actions from Beijing that undermine the status quo.

Some lawmakers, including some of Mr Biden's fellow Democrats, have called for Washington to revisit the decades-old policy, which takes no position on Taiwan's sovereignty. China sees the island as a renegade province to be reunited, by force if necessary.

Mr Burns said China's military threat to Taiwan was growing, but maintaining the "one China" policy was the smartest and most effective way to deter China from exercising force over the self-ruled democratic island.

"This is a policy that can succeed if we execute it consistently and with some strength," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, adding that the most important deterrent was for the US to maintain its military standing in the Indo-Pacific. Still, he said Congress and the executive branch had every right to "expand our arms provisions to Taiwan".

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Mr Burns' remarks were "full of Cold War mentality" at a regular press briefing in Beijing yesterday, and urged him to "understand China in an objective manner" and not underestimate its determination to uphold its "legitimate rights".

Mr Burns is expected to easily win confirmation, earning praise from members of both parties.

Senator Jim Risch, the committee's top Republican, said: "It is, I think, appropriate that Ambassador Burns was appointed to this position."

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG