Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi said on Monday that the United States and China can cooperate on issues like climate change and the COVID pandemic if they mend their damaged bilateral relations.
Wang called on Washington to lift tariffs on Chinese goods and abandon what he said was an unreasonable crackdown on the Chinese tech sector, according to him, these steps would create “the necessary conditions” for cooperation.
Wang called on Washington to respect China’s core interests, stop “denigrating” the ruling Communist Party, stop interfering in Beijing’s internal affairs, and stop “conniving” on separatist forces for Taiwan’s independence.
Washington and Beijing clashed on multiple fronts, including trade, allegations of human rights crimes against Uyghur Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region, and Beijing’s territorial claims in the resource-rich South China Sea.
However, the Biden administration has signaled that it will continue to pressure Beijing.
Moreover, in a recent statement on foreign policy plans, Biden outlined his position on China.
“We will confront China’s economic atrocities, its aggression, sabotage, violations of human rights, intellectual property and global governance”, – the head of the White House threatened.
One of Biden’s key challenges is to restore the country’s technological competitiveness, with Beijing being its main rival.