During an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns stated that the U.S. and China have aligned interests “on the battle against fentanyl and drugs, drug trafficking in the world,” and “those are issues where we seek to work with China.”
Burns said, [relevant remarks begin around 2:10] “[T]he United States and China have a complicated, often difficult, sometimes contested competitive relationship. We are competitors when it comes to major security issues here in the Indo-Pacific. We’re competitors on technology, and we’ve just taken more steps this week, additional steps to restrict the sale of American dual-use technology that could give a military advantage to China. We’re certainly competitive on the lack of a level playing field for American businesses in this nearly 700-billion-dollar two-way trade relationship. And we have major differences on human rights.”
He added, “But we also try to engage, and President Biden and President Xi agreed last November in their Bali meeting, that, when our interests align, we ought to be working together [in] a cooperative nature. So, on climate change, on the battle against infectious diseases globally, on the battle against fentanyl and drugs, drug trafficking in the world, and certainly on food security and the food insecurity produced by the war — Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, those are issues where we seek to work with China.”
Later, Burns said that “we are not seeking a decoupling of this enormous bilateral trade relationship between the United States and China. … So, we intend to continue with a major trade relationship with China.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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