When President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China met in at the Woodside Summit last November, the two leaders underscored the importance of ties between the peoples of their countries, and they pledged to expand educational, student, cultural, sports and business exchanges.
In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said the PRC is not living up to that pledge; in fact, it is actively working to prevent an expansion of such ties. “They say they’re in favor of reconnecting our two populations, but they are taking dramatic steps to make it impossible,” he said.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Ambassador Burns said he counted dozens of public events in which the PRC Ministry of State Security or other government institutions pressured Chinese citizens not to attend or tried to intimidate those who went. Beijing also made it harder for Chinese students to study at U.S. universities. College fairs across China have rescinded invitations for U.S. diplomatic staff to promote American colleges and universities to students and parents, citing security concerns. Additionally, about half of the Chinese participants selected for U.S.-funded exchange programs have pulled out, attributing cancellations to pressure from authorities, schools and employers.
Rising anti-Americanism, in part fueled by Chinese officials, is also a factor in inhibiting people-to-people connections. “I’ve been concerned for my two-plus years here about the very aggressive Chinese government … efforts to denigrate America, to tell a distorted story about American society, American history, American policy. It happens every day on all networks available to the government here, and there’s a high degree of anti-Americanism online,” he said. Efforts to counter false narratives and distortions, he added, are increasingly stymied by government censorship.
State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller underscored U.S. commitment to people-to-people ties with China. “It has been a priority for this administration,” he said:
“But at the same time, as the ambassador said, the increased PRC interference in our cultural and educational programming in the PRC since November runs counter to the commitments made at the Woodside Summit and suggest that the PRC’s version or vision of increased people-to-people connections is very different to ours – something the Secretary raised on our last trip to Beijing.”
“We want to see people-to-people ties enhanced and strengthened,” said Spokesperson Miller. “It’s in the interest of both our countries.”
