‘Cold War mindset’: China hits out at US after Washington ends exchange programs and curbs visas for officials

Beijing has slammed Washington after it terminated cultural exchange programs, put visa restrictions on officials and plans to delete shares of Chinese companies blacklisted by the US, as hostility between the states continues.

Beijing's latest criticism of US foreign policy comes after the Trump administration placed visa restrictions on Chinese Communist Party members and their families last week, cutting the validity of B1/B2 visitor visas from 10 years to a month. 

China's anger at the move was compounded on Friday as the US announced plans to end five exchange programs designed to promote better Chinese-American relations, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo branding them “soft power propaganda tools.” 

“Anti-China forces in the US, with their entrenched Cold War mindset, have been trying hard to provoke ideological rivalry between the two countries,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a regular press briefing on Monday. 

Other recent US action, viewed as antagonistic by China, includes President Trump's efforts to push Chinese firm ByteDance to divest of the US assets of its video-sharing app TikTok. 

The US has also blacklisted eight Chinese companies over alleged links to the country's military, including China Spacesat and China Nuclear Engineering & Construction Corporation. 

At the weekend, the British index provider FTSE Russell, of the London Stock Exchange, revealed that it intended to delete the shares of the eight firms from December 21 after a quarterly index review takes place.

Asked about the latest move against Chinese trade by the Trump administration, Hua said it was “clearly influenced” by the authorities in Washington and accused the US of “abusing state power” by suppressing business abroad. 

“What the US has done gravely violates market competition principles and international trade rules,” she added.

Amid China's strong words for the Trump administration, the country's Foreign Minister Wang Yi also struck a more conciliatory tone on Monday, as he envisioned more cooperative relations with the US once Joe Biden enters the White House. 

Recognizing coronavirus as a key issue of global concern, he told a business conference that he hoped China and the US could “totally cooperate on areas such as managing the pandemic, economic recovery and climate change.”

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