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US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Exclusive | China, US cannot afford depopulating the relationship, American ambassador Nicholas Burns says

  • In an exclusive Post interview, Nicholas Burns describes why people-level connections are crucial, and a major win from the Xi-Biden summit
  • The veteran diplomat said it is important to continue the momentum so that relations do not get knocked off course again

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US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, who took part in the Xi-Biden summit in San Francisco earlier this month. Photo: Bloomberg
Chow Chung-yan
China and the United States must resume people-to-people exchange at all levels to prevent the delicate relationship from “getting knocked off the course again,” US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said.
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The envoy, who took part in the summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden in San Francisco earlier this month, said both sides were able to discuss issues core to their interests, noting the importance of the two leaders’ commitment to bringing back people-level exchange.

“The people-to-people exchange is the ballast to keep the relationship stable,” Burns said, in an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post. “Our two governments have a competitive and contested relationship, but at the people-to-people level, it’s really important that we stay connected.”

During their first face-to-face summit in Bali, Indonesia, in November 2022, Xi and Biden agreed to develop “constructive relations”.

But the goodwill was short-lived after the US discovered an alleged spy balloon from China in its airspace. Beijing said the balloon was intended for civilian purposes and had entered US airspace by accident, but the incident deflated the relationship to a new low.

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The leaders’ summit in San Francisco was widely regarded as the biggest guardrail against a continuing downward spiral in bilateral relations.

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