Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo‘s China adviser Yu Maochun said that if the Chinese Communist Party does not stop persecuting human rights, the U.S. will take a hard line against the Chinese Communist Party no matter which administration comes to power. Pictured here are Pompeo and Yu Maochun. (U.S. Department of State)
The first high-level U.S.-China dialogue since Biden took power was a verbal sparring session in front of the cameras, a rarity in diplomatic history. Yu Maochun, chief China Policy adviser to the State Department in the Trump administration, said in an interview with Epoch Times that this reflects the nature of the U.S.-China relationship. If the Chinese Communist Party does not stop persecuting human rights, the United States will take a hard line against the Chinese Communist Party no matter which administration comes to power.
The public outbreak of conflicts reflects the nature of the U.S.-China relationship
On March 18 and 19 in Alaska, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken and National Security Advisor Sullivan met with Chinese Communist Party diplomats Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi. The scene was heated, with both sides arguing heatedly in front of reporters in what Washington called a “tough and direct” meeting.
Yu Maochun said the root cause of the confrontation between the U.S. and China lies not in trade conflicts, economic interests or cultural differences, but in the differences between the two political and social and ideological systems.
“The bilateral relationship between China and the U.S. was already full of tit-for-tat. The previous Chinese Communist Party was saying this is a win-win situation, let’s not quarrel. In fact, the internal conflicts are very sharp and openly explode out, which actually reflects the nature of the bilateral relationship between China and the United States. So this would not have been surprising. Of course what people see is a bad thing, but it is actually an Education for everyone that it is impossible to have a win-win situation between China and the United States on many issues.”
Yu is a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a U.S. think tank.
During the meeting, Secretary Blinken said the U.S. is concerned about Chinese policies in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as Chinese hacking of the United States and economic coercion of U.S. allies. These issues threaten the international order and are not solely domestic issues for China.
CCP State Councilor Yang Jiechi claimed that China advocates “common values for all mankind” and upholds the international system with the United Nations at its core, rather than “an order based on rules made by a small group of countries. He also lashed out at the United States for its human rights problems and suggested that the United States “mind its own business.
Yu Maochun said that what Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi talked about with U.S. Secretary of State Blinken and U.S. National Security Adviser Sullivan were not specific matters, but the fundamental differences in values between the two countries and the differences between the two social and political systems.
“Although both sides are quarreling, this quarrel brings out the fundamental difference between the two sides, this political system (of differences) more clearly. Of course it’s a bad thing to get into a quarrel, but the good side – it’s educational for everyone.”
Yu Maochun said the CCP is using this opportunity to preach to the Chinese people and the world that the U.S. political system is no longer working, or as Xi Jinping said, “the east is rising and the west is falling. This is the Chinese Communist Party’s self-aggrandizement.
“In fact, there are very few people in the world who want to learn from China’s political system. Except for the Chinese Communist Party’s self-aggrandizement. Not many people bother to believe in this system of the Communist Party, which is built under the control and suppression of people, under the total regulation of human rights. It’s actually quite isolated.”
The CCP deliberately makes a big noise to divert attention
Yu Maochun believes that Chinese Communist officials have another purpose in creating a saber-rattling atmosphere in the meeting.
“He wants to quarrel directly with the United States, and the more fierce the quarrel, the better. The main thing is to give the world the illusion that – all the problems China is experiencing are caused by the United States.”
“Actually this is not true, why? Because the U.S. is not the only country that condemns the Chinese Communist regime, there are actually many other countries that feel very strongly about this threat to China (CCP). If you look at the countries around China, many of them are deeply afraid of China (CCP).”
“China (CCP), in order to get out of this isolated position of its own, put the conflict, put all the resentment on the U.S. and give it out loudly, this is a technique to divert attention. I think that technique, it didn’t work.”
Biden can’t change China policy even if he wants to
White House security adviser Sullivan told reporters after the U.S.-China talks, “We anticipated in advance that this would be a tough and direct conversation on a wide range of topics. That’s exactly what happened.” The remarks imply that the Biden Administration will continue the Trump Administration‘s hard-line policy toward China.
According to Yu Maochun, Biden just wants to change his predecessor Trump’s policy toward China, and there is no way to do so.
“Because the most fundamental factor of Sino-US relations, it is not determined by the United States. The good or bad attitude of each administration toward the Chinese government, it is mainly determined by the Chinese government’s own behavior.”
“The Chinese government’s own words and actions have been particularly bad over the past few years. This is the single most fundamental reason for the cooling of U.S.-China relations. Whether it was the Biden administration or the previous Trump administration, there was basically a bottom line on these policies toward the Chinese Communist Party. That bottom line is to not go against the will of the vast majority of the American people at all.”
“The vast majority of the people of the United States consider China (the Chinese Communist Party) to be a threat. You look at the people’s elected members of Congress, senators and representatives, they are basically 100 percent in line with the Trump administration on the China issue. So that’s why the Biden administration wants to change, and it can’t change.”
If Pompeo is present, he will not allow the Chinese Communist Party to “spill the beans.”
But Yu Maochun, a senior official in the Trump administration, believes that there is a difference between the Democratic and Republican attitudes toward China. If former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had been in Alaska for the meeting, he would never have allowed Chinese Communist Party officials to “spill the beans.
“There is no way that (the Chinese Communist Party) would have made so many long, offensive statements and propaganda in front of Pompeo in the United States. This shows some of the nuances between Pompeo’s diplomacy and the current Blinken diplomacy, between them. Certainly they both take some tougher approaches to the Chinese Communist Party.”
“But I think in terms of the way he responds, Pompeo is definitely not going to apologize to the Chinese Communist Party for some of the domestic things that are going on in the United States and say this is not working for us and we need to correct it. That’s too low profile, because you can’t talk about these topics with a government like the Chinese Communist Party that has committed gross human rights violations and has engaged in racial discrimination and genocide on a massive scale. China (the CCP) is not qualified to talk about these topics.”
According to Yu Maochun, “Pompeo will never give the Chinese Communist Party the opportunity to attack the U.S. political system on U.S. soil and sing the praises of Communist Party rule in a big way.”
U.S. should not fall for Communist Party’s attempt to provoke bipartisanship
But Yu Maochun said he hopes Biden will not change Trump’s hard-line policy on China, because this reflects the will of the American people.
Evan Osnos, a former China correspondent for The New Yorker who has written a biography of Biden, mentioned in an online seminar at the Brookings Institute, a Washington think tank, on Nov. 9, 2020, that the Biden team has realized that the policy toward China adopted by the Obama administration at the Time is no longer It is no longer effective. Over the past few years, there has been a dramatic change in the perceptions of both the U.S. and Chinese leadership, and even the general public. “For example, a resolution criticizing Beijing‘s involvement in Hong Kong passed the Senate unopposed, and now no other bill can pass unopposed (regardless of party affiliation).”
Yu Maochun believes the Chinese Communist Party is desperately trying to sow discord between Democrats and Republicans.
“It (the CCP) is absolutely trying to provoke the differences between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party in terms of their policies toward China. Let’s not fall for its trick. I think the reason why this Chinese Communist Party is showing a very annoyed look now is that it sees that the American people nationwide, regardless of the party, have a renewed understanding of the Chinese Communist Party.”
Yu Maochun said that the Beijing authorities need to stop persecuting human rights and other vicious acts if they want the United States to change its policy toward China.
“It requires the Chinese government to make critical, qualitative, changes in behavior, to stop persecuting the people of Xinjiang, to stop persecuting religious people, including Falun Gong people, to stop infringing on human rights freedoms and a high degree of autonomy in Hong Kong, to stop threatening Taiwan, and to stop engaging in some very immoral business and trade practices in the world. “
“If the Chinese Communist Party fails to do so, I think the U.S. policy toward China will basically remain unchanged no matter which administration comes to power; there may be differences in approach, but the basic approach will remain the same.”
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