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SHANGHAI: Chinese state media warned that some damage to Sino-US ties is “irreparable” amid a new wave of anti-China measures by the Trump administration, with a nasty dispute on Twitter between a US senator and a reporter Chinese that underscores the growing resentment.
The government-backed China Daily newspaper said in an editorial that it considered Washington’s decision to limit visitor visas for members of the Chinese Communist Party and their families and a ban on cotton imports from Xinjiang as “worrying signs.” .
“Even if the incoming administration has any intention of easing the tensions that have been and continue to sow, some damages are simply beyond repair, as the sitting US president claims,” the newspaper said.
Relations between the world’s two largest economies have sunk to their lowest point in decades on issues such as trade, technology, security, human rights and COVID-19.
Bilateral ties are moving “down a dangerous path,” according to the China Daily editorial.
READ: Trump’s spy chief calls China the biggest threat to freedom since WWII
The Chinese ambassador to the United States became the latest of Beijing’s top officials to signal a desire to restore the increasingly contentious relationship as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office in January.
“There are always differences between the two countries. Neither of them justifies confrontation and war, hot or cold,” Cui said on Twitter on Thursday (December 3). “With enough mutual respect and mutual understanding, we are able to manage these differences so they don’t derail the whole relationship.”
However, it is unclear whether a Biden administration will bring about dramatic change.
The Democrat told the New York Times this week that he would not remove the existing tariffs set by the Trump administration against China for now.
Legislation targeting China or Chinese officials on charges of human rights abuses in Xinjiang and crackdown on activists in Hong Kong has also won broad bipartisan support in Congress, further suggesting that current policies toward China have staying power.
An exchange of insults on Thursday between US Senator Marsha Blackburn and China Daily reporter Chen Weihua underscored the persistent animosity.
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Blackburn, a Republican and one of China’s most outspoken critics, claimed without evidence on Twitter that China “has a 5,000-year history of cheating and robbery.”
Chen responded to her tweet, accusing Blackburn of being the most “racist and ignorant” US senator he has ever seen and calling her a “bitch for life.”
The senator responded by calling Chen a “puppet” in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “dream of global domination” and that the United States will not bow to “sexist communist bullies.”
