Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi addressed a meeting of the National Council on U.S.-China Relations on February 1, offering an olive branch and a set of criteria for renewing U.S.-China relations, while issuing a broadside on the anti-China policies under Pompeo, Wray, et. al. This was really the first high-level presentation regarding what China expects from the new Administration, and was viewed as such with extensive coverage of the speech on Chinese TV and in the U.S. press. Yang, who is fluent in English, spoke in Chinese through an interpreter, no doubt to emphasize the official nature of his speech. “More than a week ago, the Biden administration officially took office. China-U.S. relations now stand at a key point and face new opportunities and new challenges,” said Yang, also director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee.
Yang said the previous administration had followed some “misguided policies” regarding China. “They view China as a major strategic competitor, even an adversary. That, I am afraid, is historically, fundamentally and strategically wrong.” The task now, he said was “for both China and the United States to restore the relationship to a predictable and constructive track of development, and to build a model for interaction between the two major countries that focuses on peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation.”
He also responded to the recent attacks on the Communist Party, and, most recently, on President Xi himself. “In the past year, the Chinese people, working as one under the leadership and instruction of President Xi Jinping, made major strategic progress in both COVID response and economic and social development,” Yang said. Later, he felt it necessary to also point out, “that the 1.4 billion Chinese people wholeheartedly support the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and they are rallying closely around the CPC and forging ahead on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics with great resolve and determination. No force could stop China’s continuous development or the noble cause of global peace and development.”
