US ambassador to China Nick Burns has accused Beijing of preventing Chinese citizens from taking part in American government programmes and thus making people-to-people exchange between the two countries “impossible”.
In interview excerpts published on Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal, Burns said mainland officials have interfered in 61 public events organised by the US embassy in Beijing since November, either by pressuring Chinese citizens not to go or trying to intimidate those who did.
“They say they’re in favour of reconnecting our two populations, but they’re taking dramatic steps to make it impossible,” he added, calling disturbances of embassy events “routine”.
The US has long accused Beijing of discouraging Chinese citizens from taking part in American government-funded activities.
“We need to have lots of young American women and men speak Mandarin and have experience in China, working in our government, leading our corporations,” he said at an Asia Society event in New York earlier this month.
Later on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US still believed in increasing people-to-people ties with China, but that Beijing’s interference in US cultural programming “runs counter” to commitments made in San Francisco.
The Chinese embassy in Washington, for its part, called Burns’ claims about Beijing’s conduct “totally untrue”.
“There is no restriction on Chinese citizens’ participation in people-to-people and cultural exchanges,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said.
Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy in Washington has been hosting numerous events to celebrate people-to-people ties between the two countries.
“China is willing to be a friend and partner of the United States,” said Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the US, at one such embassy event last month.