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SHANGHAI: US measures to limit visitor visas for Chinese Communist Party members and their families and a ban on cotton imports from Xinjiang are “worrying signs” that bilateral ties are taking a dangerous path, they said. Chinese state media on Friday.
The government-backed newspaper China Daily said in an editorial that it viewed the visa changes and the cotton ban as efforts by China’s hawks in the outgoing Trump administration to cement its tough policy toward China beyond its term.
“Even if the incoming administration intends to ease the tensions that have been sown and continue to sow, some damages simply cannot be repaired, as the sitting US president claims,” the newspaper said.
“The recent deterioration in bilateral relations has fundamentally changed the political atmosphere of China’s policies in the US So much so that containing China has become a bipartisan consensus.”
Relations between the world’s two largest economies have sunk to their lowest point in decades over issues such as trade and technology.
The Trump administration announced rules Thursday that reduce the maximum length of some visitor visas for members of the Chinese Communist Party and their immediate family members from 10 years to one month.
The US government said the restriction was intended to protect the nation from the “evil influence” of the party.
A day earlier, the administration had increased pressure on China’s western Xinjiang region, banning cotton imports from a powerful Chinese quasi-military organization that it says uses the forced labor of detained Uighur Muslims.
