Participants taking part in a China-U.S. youth exchange program experience tie-dye on board an electric tourist ship in Yichang, central China's Hubei Province, June 11, 2024.(Xinhua/Du Zixuan)

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday refuted US Ambassador Nicholas Burns' wrongful remarks that China was "working to prevent normal interactions between Chinese and American citizens," noting that it is the US, not China, that has created a "chilling effect" to the normal interactions between the two sides due to its incessant harassment and interrogation of Chinese citizens.

Some Chinese experts told the Global Times on Wednesday that the US is inconsistent in words and deeds in promoting bilateral relations and that the obstacles set by the US have hindered normal communication between the two peoples and are not conducive to long-term stability in the China-US relationship.

According to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Burns said in an interview that Chinese officials were working to "prevent" or "intimidate" people who attended embassy events. He also blamed China for "preventing" normal interactions between China-US people-to-people exchanges.

Mao Ning, a spokesperson from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, refuted Burns' wrongful words at Wednesday's routine press conference, emphasizing that those words stray from the important common understandings reached by the two presidents in San Francisco and the right way for the two countries to get along. 

Mao noted that China is guided by the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation in growing relations with the US and is committed to promoting people-to-people and cultural exchanges between the two countries.

However, the US has used national security as a false pretext to harass, interrogate and deport Chinese students arriving in the US, the spokesperson said. Such moves inflicted enormous damage on the persons concerned, and have created a chilling effect, Mao noted.

"The barriers to cultural exchanges between China and the US were initially established by the US, and there is no denying this fact," an expert on Ameican studies, who requested anonymity, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The expert said that the US harassing Chinese students is a typical practice of pan-security. As the US views normal economic and trade exchanges, technological cooperation, and even personnel exchanges between China and the US as a threat to its national security, many innocent Chinese students and scholars are targeted with illegal and unreasonable measures.

Echoing his words, Diao Daming, a professor at the Renmin University of China in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday that after the San Francisco summit last November, the Chinese side has been actively promoting exchanges between Chinese and American students, as well as communication in various fields, showing great sincerity. China has also been providing convenience for further deepening communication, while in contrast the US has put up many obstacles that hinder the strengthening of normal interactions between people from the two countries, Diao said.

People-to-people exchanges between China and the US, including exchanges in the fields of humanities, education, technology and culture, are needed by the people of both countries, Diao said. However, the US mind-set of pan-security hinders normal interaction and goes against the essential needs and basic logic of those exchanges. "The US should not interfere with normal bilateral communications under the pretext of the so-called national security threat," Diao noted.

The restrictions imposed by the US on people-to-people exchanges undoubtedly have a chilling effect, affecting many bilateral scientific research collaborations and further studies of Chinese students in the US, analysts said.

On Monday, US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell also made negative remarks regarding China-US people-to-people exchanges, claiming that the US should welcome more students from China, but to study humanities rather than sciences, Reuters reported. He said that international students studying sciences can be recruited from India, "an increasingly important US security partner."

Campbell's remarks clearly reveal the US' intention to hinder China's access to cutting-edge technological ideas and advancements, and Washington is employing administrative tactics to achieve this goal, Xin Qiang, a deputy director of the Center for American Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times.

The US wants to maintain its leading position and advantage in the high-tech field, so incidents of Chinese students, especially those in technology majors, being harassed becomes a frequent occurrence, the expert said, noting that this shows that the US' hegemonic thinking has already extended to the fields of education and cultural exchange.

The image of the US in the eyes of the Chinese people is ultimately determined by the US itself, Mao told the press conference. "The US should work with China, promote China-US people-to-people and cultural exchanges through credible actions and advance the sound and steady growth of bilateral relations," the spokesperson emphasized.

"If interactions between China and the US are to continue and maintain a positive trend, it is not China that needs to change, but rather the US," Diao said. The US should truly fulfill its commitments through practical actions, instead of being inconsistent in words and deeds, analysts said.