On Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning rebuked U.S. ambassador to China Nicholas Burns for blaming China for blocking bilateral exchanges.

She urged the U.S. side to take concrete actions to promote these exchanges.

Ms Mao made the remarks at a regular press briefing when asked to comment on Mr Burns’s criticism, who reportedly said that China made it “impossible” to boost exchanges between the two countries.

Mr Burns made the comments while taking an interview, accusing China of preventing people from attending U.S. embassy events.

Ms Mao refuted Burns’s remarks, noting that they do not conform to the facts and deviate from the important consensus the two heads of state reached at their meeting in San Francisco.

These run counter to the correct way for China and the U.S. to proceed forward and are not conducive to the sound and stable development of bilateral ties.

China has always developed its relations with the U.S. in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, and is committed to promoting people-to-people exchanges, the spokesperson said.

Ms Mao added that the Bond with Kuliang: 2024 China-U.S. Youth Festival is currently being held in Fuzhou, Fujian Province. This is the largest and most diversified youth exchange activity since diplomatic ties between China and the U.S. were established.

Stressing that it is not the Chinese side that is interfering with the cultural exchanges between the two countries but the U.S. side, Mao said that under the pretext of national security.

The U.S. has unwarrantedly harassed, interrogated and repatriated Chinese students in the United States, causing great harm to the parties concerned.

“We hope that the U.S. side will work with China to promote people-to-people and cultural exchanges with concrete actions and promote the sound and steady development of China-U.S. relations,” Ms Mao said.

(Xinhua/NAN)