The US Ambassador To China Isn’t A Diplomat But A Fake News Propagator
Nicholas Burns cannot be considered a diplomat since he’s knowingly spreading fake news about his hosts in a vicious attempt to defame them in the court of public opinion. His de facto role is no different than that of those information warriors who’ve previously been prevented from operating in the People’s Republic because their activities are unfriendly at the very best and illegal at worst.
US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns proved that he’s a fake news propagator and not a bonafide diplomat while sharing exclusive comments with CNN during his first TV interview in his post. He flipped reality on its head by blaming the UN-recognized Chinese government in Beijing for supposedly provoking a crisis over its Taiwan region earlier this month when it was actually US Speaker Nancy Pelosi who irresponsibly traveled there despite not being welcomed and thus violated the One China policy.
According to the artificially manufactured alternative reality that he spun before the cameras, China’s response of imposing targeted sanctions and staging military drills was an “overreaction.” Burns then condescendingly claimed that it is now “incumbent upon the government here in Beijing to convince the rest of the world that it will act peacefully in the future” because “I think there's a lot of concern around the world that China has now become an agent of instability in the Taiwan Strait”.
Based on these statements, Burns cannot be considered a diplomat since he’s knowingly spreading fake news about his hosts in a vicious attempt to defame them in the court of public opinion. His de facto role is no different than that of those information warriors who’ve previously been prevented from operating in the People’s Republic because their activities are unfriendly at the very best and illegal at worst. It therefore can’t be discounted that China might take action in response to this provocation.
Granted, the US Ambassador to China has diplomatic immunity, but the point is that he isn’t fulfilling his role since he’s too obsessed with spreading propaganda instead of building bridges. That’s a pity too since Chinese-American relations urgently need to improve, but the prerogative for doing so is solely the US’, which unilaterally worsened ties over the years. This process began with the Obama Administration’s “Pivot to Asia”, worsened under Donald Trump, and continued with Joe Biden.
Burns’ atrocious conduct completely contrasts from his Chinese counterpart Qin Gang’s, who behaved as professionally as any world-class diplomat would be expected to while speaking with US Mainstream Media last week. He very calmly and politely articulated his country’s position on sensitive issues, including the Taiwan region, and made a sincere well-intended effort to focus on building bridges between China and the US instead of fanning the flames of disagreement between them.
The international community should take note of this indisputable difference between these two top diplomats. It shows that China is truly a politically mature and responsible major country while the US has fallen from grace after its ambassador to the People’s Republic defiled his diplomatic position to spew propaganda against his hosts. What’s so disturbing about this observation is that the American Ambassador to China is supposed to be among his country’s best and most qualified professionals.
This very strongly suggests that those in comparatively less prestigious positions are probably even worse than he is, thus making many wonder whether the US has any true ambassadors left if one of its most important in the world behaves so disgracefully without even an ounce of shame. Burns isn’t supposed to be an obstacle to the much-needed improvement of bilateral relations, but among the most important players in rebuilding bridges between China and the US.
Instead of doing his official job, he decided to spew propaganda about the People’s Republic in an unfriendly effort to manipulate perceptions about that country. His unstated intention seems to have been to reverse the roles of victim and villain in the latest Taiwan Crisis by falsely claiming that Beijing is to blame for recent events when it’s actually Washington that’s solely responsible. These lies will fail to influence public opinion though since even many Americans condemned Pelosi’s dangerous trip.
With this in mind, it can be concluded that Burns has already all but abandoned his diplomatic duties just six months into his new post. He didn’t even try to build bridges like he was supposed to but maliciously began waging information warfare against China in order to further worsen bilateral relations. The American Ambassador to China must therefore immediately apologize to the Chinese people for disrespecting them in such a brazen fashion if he has any decency as a diplomat.