China's top diplomat says ties with US 'stabilised' last year

As the two countries work to place their relations on a more stable foundation in 2024, China’s foreign minister stated on Tuesday that relations with the US “stabilised” last year.

In recent years, Beijing and Washington have clashed on contentious topics ranging from trade and technology to human rights, in addition to tensions surrounding Taiwan and conflicting claims in the South China Sea.

President Joe Biden visited Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November in an attempt to defuse some of the worst tensions in decades. The discussions were deemed a moderate success by both parties.

Additionally, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi acknowledged that relations had “encountered serious difficulties at the beginning of (last) year” in a speech on Tuesday at the sumptuous Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

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.