China’s support for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine through the provision of technology for missiles and other weaponry is a “major mistake,” U.S. Ambassador to Beijing Nicholas Burns said Wednesday.

In a speech in the Chinese financial hub of Shanghai, Burns also said Russia’s invasion, now in its third year, had become an “existential crisis” in Europe.

“We think it’s a major mistake to allow Chinese companies, by the thousands, to be sending so many components, technology components, microprocessors (and) nitrocellulose to Russia to reinforce and strengthen the defense industrial base of the Russian Federation for this brutal war,” Burns said.

China “is not neutral, but has effectively sided with Russia in this war,” the ambassador said, adding that the decision directly contradicted China's longstanding insistence on “sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

China insists it does not provide direct military aid to Russia but has maintained strong trade ties throughout the conflict, along with visits between Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

China is also a major purchaser of Russian oil and gas, providing a lifeline for Moscow's war economy that is under international sanctions. Prior to Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, China and Russia signed an agreement vowing a limitless friendship. China has refused to refer to the invasion as such and has blamed NATO for provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin.

There was no immediate Chinese reaction to Burns' remarks, which came during a seminar on China-U.S. relations centered on the life of Henry Kissinger, a career diplomat who died last year.

In a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal, Burns also criticized Beijing for undermining people-to-people cultural and educational exchanges by interrogating and intimidating citizens who attend U.S.-organized events in China, ramping up restrictions on the embassy’s social media posts and whipping up anti-American sentiment.

His comments drew a rebuke from the Chinese foreign ministry.

“It is the U.S., not China, that has disrupted and prevented cultural and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries,” Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Wednesday. “The U.S. has used national security as a false pretext to harass, interrogate and deport Chinese students arriving in the U.S. Such moves inflicted enormous damage on the persons concerned. They’ve created a chilling effect.”

In Washington, the State Department “absolutely” agreed with “everything the ambassador said” in the interview, spokesman Matthew Miller said.

“It's very hard” to improve people-to-people relations “when the Chinese government harasses either American citizens who are in China or harasses Chinese citizens who participate in ... or attempt to participate in American programs,” Miller said.

In the past, the State Department has said it welcomed Chinese students, and that said fewer than “one tenth of 1%” of them have been detained or denied admission.

Relations between Washington and Beijing also remain fraught over trade, territorial disputes and the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan. The U.S. maintains close political and military relations with Taiwan despite their lack of formal diplomatic ties in deference to Beijing.

China claims the island as its own territory to be annexed by force if necessary. It has threatened in recent days to hunt down “hardcore” supporters of the island's continued independence and sentence them to death. There was no indication how it intended to act on the threat.

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Beijing making US-China exchanges 'impossible': US ambassador Nicholas Burns

US ambassador to China Nick Burns has accused Beijing of preventing Chinese citizens from taking part in American government programmes and thus making people-to-people exchange between the two countries "impossible".

In interview excerpts published on Tuesday in The Wall Street Journal, Burns said mainland officials have interfered in 61 public events organised by the US embassy in Beijing since November, either by pressuring Chinese citizens not to go or trying to intimidate those who did.

"They say they're in favour of reconnecting our two populations, but they're taking dramatic steps to make it impossible," he added, calling disturbances of embassy events "routine".

The long-time diplomat said Beijing had fuelled anti-American sentiment, restricted Chinese citizens' access to US embassy social-media posts and made it harder for mainland students to attend American universities.

Visitors line up outside the US embassy in Beijing 

The US has long accused Beijing of discouraging Chinese citizens from taking part in American government-funded activities.

While US State Department officials recently spoke about such treatment, it is uncommon for the ambassador to Beijing himself to express these concerns.

Tensions between the US and China persist in areas ranging from trade to human rights, but relations somewhat stabilised after US President Joe Biden met his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in San Francisco in November.

As part of that summit, both leaders agreed to advance people-to-people ties, something they reiterated in an April phone call.

In November, Xi announced plans to welcome 50,000 young Americans to China over the next five years in exchange and study programmes.

Burns, too, has consistently advocated for more Americans in China since assuming his post in 2022, particularly in light of a significant decline in numbers during the coronavirus pandemic.

"We need to have lots of young American women and men speak Mandarin and have experience in China, working in our government, leading our corporations," he said at an Asia Society event in New York earlier this month.

And despite the State Department's travel advisory for mainland China, which asks Americans to "reconsider travel", Burns has repeatedly said American students have not faced major threats to their safety in China.

But the envoy also said he was "angered" by the stabbings of four American college instructors in Jilin this month, telling the Wall Street Journal he wanted more transparency about the perpetrator's motive. No motive has yet been identified.

Later on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US still believed in increasing people-to-people ties with China, but that Beijing's interference in US cultural programming "runs counter" to commitments made in San Francisco.

The Chinese embassy in Washington, for its part, called Burns' claims about Beijing's conduct "totally untrue".

"There is no restriction on Chinese citizens' participation in people-to-people and cultural exchanges," embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said.

Beijing has frequently complained that Washington restricts the movement of its US-based diplomats and harshly interrogates or deports some Chinese citizens holding valid American visas.

Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy in Washington has been hosting numerous events to celebrate people-to-people ties between the two countries.

"China is willing to be a friend and partner of the United States," said Xie Feng, China's ambassador to the US, at one such embassy event last month.

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US envoy lashes out at China in rare move, says Beijing not a 'confident government'

China has actively undermined relations with the United States by harassing and interrogating citizens who attend U.S.-organized events in China, U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns told the Wall Street Journal.

Burns said China appeared willing to boost ties with the U.S. in November of last year following a meeting between President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. That understanding has since broken down, however, according to Burns.

"They say they’re in favor of reconnecting our two populations, but they’re taking dramatic steps to make it impossible," Burns told the Journal in an interview.

Burns said China's government is actively working to decrease America's standing in the country and disrupt U.S. diplomatic efforts there.

Among China's restrictive policies is a new effort to block Chinese students from attending U.S. universities, Burns said. Exchange programs have proven more and more difficult in recent months.

"What they tell us and what they tell the world is they want people-to-people engagement, and yet this is not just episodic. This is routine. This is nearly every public event," Burns explained. "This is a serious breach, and we hope that the PRC will reconsider," he added, using an acronym for the People’s Republic of China.

The Chinese government has grown more and more bold in its efforts to thwart U.S. diplomats as well. A stark example is its decision to cancel a U.S.-organized concert under questionable circumstances. The government said there would be no electricity at the venue the night of the event. Despite that, however, the venue had events scheduled both the night before and after the U.S. event.

"It’s not the sign of a confident government," Burns told WSJ.

Burns added China is not fully cooperating with the investigation into the stabbing of four U.S. college professors in China earlier this month.

"I’m not satisfied that we’ve been given sufficient information as to the motives of the assailant," Burns told the Journal. "I’ve been concerned for my two-plus years here about the very aggressive Chinese government … efforts to denigrate America, to tell a distorted story about American society, American history, American policy. It happens every day on all the networks available to the government here, and there’s a high degree of anti-Americanism online."

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China rejects U.S. envoy's comment that it hinders people-to-people exchanges

China's foreign ministry described as "far-fetched" on Wednesday remarks by U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns, saying they deviated from key understandings reached by the presidents of both nations.

A Wall Street Journal report widely circulated by global media had said Burns accused Beijing of making people-to-people exchanges between the two countries "impossible".

"It is not in line with the correct way for China and the United States to get along with each other and is not conducive to the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations," foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular briefing.

Referring to a meeting in San Francisco last November at which Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Joe Biden discussed issues that had strained ties, Mao added:

"Ambassador Burns's remarks are not true and deviate from the important consensus reached by the two heads of state."

In excerpts of an interview published in the Wall Street Journal, Burns said mainland officials interfered in 61 public events organised by the U.S. embassy in Beijing since November.

They did this either by pressuring Chinese citizens to stay away or trying to intimidate those who did, he added.

"China has always developed its relations with the United States in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation put forward by President Xi Jinping," Mao said.

"It is committed to promoting cultural exchanges between China and the United States."

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