Chinese defend ‘tough’ diplomacy

BEIJING | China’s newly assertive diplomacy is an effort to safeguard its core interests and shouldn’t be interpreted as combativeness, the country’s foreign minister said Sunday.

Questioned about foreign misunderstandings of China, Yang Jiechi said critics who label Beijing as “more and more tough” don’t recognize it is just defending its sovereignty, security and development interests.

“Sticking to one’s principles and being ‘tough’ or not, are two completely different matters,” Mr. Yang said at a press conference held on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature.

In an apparent swipe at the United States, Mr. Yang said critics were accusing Beijing of being difficult, while “taking it for granted that the interests of other countries can be undermined.”

China accuses Washington of interfering in China’s affairs by selling arms to Taiwan and holding a meeting between President Obama and Tibet’s exiled leader, the Dalai Lama.

Ties between the nations steeply declined over the first two months of the year, prompting Washington last week to send Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and senior White House Asia adviser Jeffrey Bader to Beijing.

Mr. Yang repeated China’s insistence that the U.S. is entirely responsible for the turbulence in ties, and said only that he had held “in-depth and candid discussions” with Mr. Steinberg and Mr. Bader.

“The responsibility for the difficulties in China-U.S. relations does not lie with China,” Mr. Yang said.

Washington has said it wants to get past the current tensions and restore normal contacts, dealing with bilateral and international issues.

Beijing was incensed by the January announcement of a $6.4 billion weapons package for Taiwan, the self-governing island it considers Chinese territory. Beijing suspended military exchanges and has threatened to retaliate against U.S. aerospace firms involved in the deal.

Beijing protested again when Mr. Obama met at the White House with the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing accuses of seeking independence for the Himalayan region.

Mr. Yang said those events undermined China’s interests. “The United States should take seriously China’s position and respect China’s core interests,” he said.

Other irritants include Google’s contention that its e-mail accounts were hacked from China, followed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s criticisms of the censorship of cyberspace by China and others. Beijing lashed out at Google and what it labeled U.S. “information imperialism,” while the Foreign Ministry said Mrs. Clinton’s remarks damaged bilateral relations.

The new tensions join recurring friction over human rights and commerce, with U.S. critics accusing China of deliberately undervaluing its currency to boost its massive trade surplus. Meanwhile, Beijing has charged Washington with abusing trade-relief measures after U.S. regulators increased import duties on Chinese-made steel pipes.