U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns attends the 10th World Peace Forum in Beijing, China, July 4, 2022. The 10th World Peace Forum opened in Beijing on Sunday.
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According to the Wall Street Journal, the US ambassador to China said Beijing was undermining ties between the two countries despite an agreement to increase exchanges between the two countries.
At their summit in November, President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to support and expand exchanges between the two countries in areas including student, business and sports exchanges.
Citing an exclusive interview with Ambassador Nicholas Burns, the WSJ reported that China has “interrogated and intimidated citizens who attend U.S.-sponsored events in China, tightened restrictions on embassy social media posts and stoked anti-American sentiment.”
“They say they are in favor of reuniting the populations of the two countries, but they are taking drastic measures to make that impossible,” he was quoted as saying.
This comes amid a modest improvement in relations between the US and China since Xi and Biden met in California on the sidelines of the APEC leaders’ meeting in November.
Since then, Chinese officials have hosted top US diplomats in Beijing, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
But Burns told The Wall Street Journal that despite these actions, Beijing has increasingly clamped down on U.S. diplomatic activities in China, and he claimed the Chinese government is pressuring its citizens to take part in such activities or telling them not to go.
The ambassador reportedly said Beijing had made it difficult for Chinese students to attend U.S. universities.
CNBC has reached out to the Chinese Embassy in Singapore but has not yet heard back.
Citing ideological and national security concerns, the WSJ reported that a college fair across China had rescinded invitations for U.S. diplomats to promote American universities to high school students and their parents.
The report also said that about half of the participants selected for U.S.-funded exchange programs in the past two years have dropped out, citing pressure from authorities, schools and employers.
“What they’re saying to us, and to the world, is that they want people to interact, but this isn’t just a one-off thing. This is the norm. This is happening at almost every public event,” Burns told The Wall Street Journal.
Read the full Wall Street Journal report here.
