A candid exchange in 2019 between Chinese and US representatives, wherein China voices concerns about perceived US interference and hypocrisy. Despite the passage of time, China continues to uphold its position highlighting a perceived lack of change in US behavior, reflecting ongoing tensions in US-China relations.
On 9th December 2019, Former Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney, and Former Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing discussed the global order in 2030, with specific insight on the US and China’s leading roles, in their session “The Global Order 2030: The United States & China” at the Arab Strategy Forum in Dubai.
Below is the transcript of a top-level US politician being lectured by Zhaoxing.
Li Zhaoxing: You are talking about new China’s nationalism. I don’t know where you learned that. Maybe from some American-biased journalists. But they are great politicians.
You are not a biased journalist, Sir. So, excuse me for being so candid.
China, according to President Xi Jinping’s idea, will always have the people at the center. Will always believe in the principle of the people first. The people meaning not only the Chinese people but also the people of the world at large.
In 2013, President Xi Jinping, when paying a state visit to a neighboring country, proposed for the first time the building of the One Belt, One Road idea. And the method of building this great idea is to learn from each other. To cooperate in the principle of peaceful coexistence.
And to benefit the resources of the building up of the One Belt, One Road.
China will never try to be a superpower, like the United States of America. And I hope all American friends will also know the basic or very simple principle. That is, history is the best teacher. According to what I learned from American professors at the university, America of the Northern American continent, used to be a colony of the UK or the British Empire, and the American people suffered a lot. That’s why there was the Independence War in 1776.
I suppose some American politicians have forgotten their own history.
Now people are talking a lot about the trade war between the US and China. They forgot about the trade war with the former rulers, the British colonialists. You forgot what happened in 1776 in Boston. You forgot about the incident of the tea-pouring event.
And that thing led to the Independence War. And after eight years of fighting, America came into being in 1783. So, America has such a history.
That’s why you developed first. You developed so fast later on. In China, we have a saying, which is, I believe, a truth.
That is, a child from a poor family could go far, do a lot, and be successful. American, you had your forefathers be ruled, exploited, and bullied by the Western European colonialists. So, after you got independence, you developed so fast. You had so many inventions, and so forth.
However, what a pity it is, when you became the number one economy, the number one military power, you became a student, a learner of your former boss, the British. Now, you want to bully others.
In 1900, you joined the other Western emperors to invade China. In the 1950s, America took the lead in invading the Korean Peninsula. And you made a lot of trouble in the Middle East and around the Arab world.
You tried to sow discord among peace-loving countries, and you didn’t keep your promise. Talking about U.S.-China relations, I was quite happy to thank you for giving me the chance. Remember, sir, 1972 was still not too far away.
On the last day, February 28, 1972, the first joint communique between our two countries was announced in Shanghai. According to that communique, we simply call it the Shanghai Joint Communique between China and America. The essential sentence in that document is that the American government finds that the people, the Chinese people on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait all believe there is only one China, and all believe that Taiwan is part of China.
The American government does not challenge this position. This is a very important sentence in the first joint communique between our two countries. But I’m afraid, sir, have you ever read that? Have you ever read it? I suspect he has.
Many politicians of America read it, but they forgot it. And they don’t keep their promise.
They betrayed their forefathers’ promise, and they continue to interfere in China’s internal affairs on the Taiwan question. For instance, you want the steel to sell weapons to Taiwan. For what? Is Taiwan a state, a city, or a village in the United States? No, Taiwan is China’s Taiwan.
Just about Hong Kong, too. Hong Kong is China’s Hong Kong. But your parliament even passed a so-called Act of Bill to interfere, to talk at random about our Hong Kong matters.
This is ridiculous. This only damages the image of America in front of the world’s people. So, thank you for understanding me, and my candidness.
I want to be candid. I learned this from my American teachers and my British professors. If you want to be a good person, you have to be candid.
So, for the future, I only hope we remember one of the rulers of EAU told us we have to start our future from today, not from tomorrow. I hope the American politicians will realize the serious and stupid mistake they already have committed, to do something good for the U.S. people as well as for people of other countries, including Arab countries. Indeed, thank you.
Well, as we’ve said, it was a candid exchange.
