AP Interview: US ambassador defends tough approach to China

BEIJING (AP) — The departing U.S. ambassador on Tuesday defended a tough approach to China that has riled relations between the world's two largest economies, saying the Trump administration has made progress on trade and that he hopes it will extend to other areas.

Terry Branstad, the longtime Iowa governor who was chosen by President Donald Trump to be envoy to China, said the Trump administration is seeking the same treatment for American companies and individuals in China that their Chinese counterparts get in America.

“I think in the area of trade, we’ve got their attention and we’re making progress,” he said in an interview at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. “I hope we can in the other (areas), in terms of the treatment of our media, the treatment of our diplomats.”

Branstad is returning to Iowa this weekend after three years and three months as ambassador in Beijing, the longest he and his wife have lived outside of his home state. No successor has been named.

After launching a trade war in 2018 and seeking to restrict Chinese telecom giant Huawei on national security grounds, the Trump administration has further ramped up pressure on China this year.

It imposed restrictions on Chinese diplomats and journalists; closed the Chinese consulate in Houston and repeatedly criticized China on multiple fronts, from its handling of COVID-19 to its military moves in the South China Sea and its human rights record in Hong Kong and the Xinjiang region, home to a largely Muslim population.

China has rebuked the U.S. and responded in kind, closing a U.S. consulate in the southwestern city of Chengdu. With almost daily heated exchanges, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that ties face their gravest challenge since the normalization of relations in 1979.

Branstad downplayed such fears, noting the...