U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, the former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, appears to have had a flashback to his role as U.S. spokesman at the Global NATO military alliance. In his first interview since becoming Ambassador to China in March – with CNN, of course – Burns issued a threat to China to admit it was to blame for the crisis over Taiwan.
“We do not believe there should be a crisis in U.S.-China relations over the [Pelosi] visit — the peaceful visit — of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to Taiwan,” Burns said. “It was a manufactured crisis by the government in Beijing.” It is therefore “incumbent upon the government here in Beijing to convince the rest of the world that it will act peacefully in the future,” the ambassador said. He apparently left unsaid the “Or else” implied by his Ozymandian rhetoric.
“I think there’s a lot of concern around the world that China has now become an agent of instability in the Taiwan Strait and that’s not in anyone’s interest…. We’ve been very, very clear about (maintaining our policy). The issue is — is one government going to react in an aggressive and violent way to disturb the peace? That has to concern everybody in the world,” he said.
