Amid frequent disclosures of his experiences in China, US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns has recently used unusually harsh language to condemn the Chinese Communist Party’s significant undermining of US diplomatic activities. In his latest revelations, he cited specific examples to support his claims.
In an interview published by The Wall Street Journal on June 25th, Burns stated that China’s disruptive behavior towards US diplomatic activities in China includes interrogating and intimidating Chinese citizens participating in American organizational events, intensifying scrutiny of social media posts by the US embassy, and inciting anti-American sentiments.
He mentioned that in 61 public events held since November last year, either the Chinese Ministry of State Security or other government departments either pressured Chinese citizens not to participate or intimidated those who did. Some participants were interrogated by Chinese officials, even in the late hours at their homes.
Burns also revealed an incident where the US embassy rented a venue to organize a concert, only to be informed on the day of the event, without any explanation, that there was a power outage, causing the concert to be canceled. US embassy officials mentioned that the venue had hosted events the night before and the night after without any noticeable power issues.
“A confident government wouldn’t act this way,” he remarked.
In a recent interview with the Financial Times, Burns discussed the most bizarre scenes and experiences he encountered while working in China. He also emphasized that the level of suppression in China right now is higher than at any time in decades past.
“We are engaged in a battle of ideas with Beijing – our democratic values against their authoritarian thinking. Every day, we are fighting to defend our vision of the future,” he told the Financial Times.
Speaking to Hua Daily, Burns mentioned that he had raised numerous questions to the Chinese side in closed-door meetings, believing that the actions of the Chinese government were becoming increasingly inconsistent, yet “nothing has changed, nothing has been resolved.”
He criticized the Chinese government for inciting anti-American sentiments domestically and expressed concern that during his over two years of work in China, the government was vehemently disparaging the US, distorting American society, history, and policies. “These things are happening every day on all networks controlled by the (Chinese) government, and anti-American sentiment online is strong,” he added.
Regarding the stabbing incident involving four American teachers from Cornell University in a park in Northeast China, Burns expressed dissatisfaction with the Chinese government. He mentioned that the information he received regarding the motives of the crime was not sufficient. Following the incident, he spoke with the affected teachers and publicly expressed his anger about the matter.
In February of this year, Burns spoke to CBS News’ 60 Minutes program, where he refuted the Chinese Communist Party’s claim of “the East is rising while the West is declining.” He countered by stating that economically, the US is thriving in comparison to China. He also highlighted China’s long-term demographic issues – declining birth rates, irreversible according to experts, signaling China’s aging population and continuous population shrinkage.
Burns informed CBS that the Chinese economy has yet to recover from the trauma caused by the repressive “zero tolerance policy” of the CCP. For the first time in 40 years, capital exiting China has surpassed investments flowing in from the US, Japan, Europe, and South Korea.