China's envoy warns of 'red lines' ahead of Trump-Xi meeting

China's ambassador to the US warned on Wednesday that China has "red lines" on Taiwan, human rights and other issues that cannot be crossed, ahead of this week's meeting in Washington between the two countries' leaders. Writing in the People's Daily, Ambassador Xie Feng said managing differences depends on good faith, urging the US to stop "fabricating pretexts" like national security and forced labour to constrain China. He stressed that China's sovereignty and development interests cannot be violated. Xie added that top-level diplomacy is a "steady hand" for bilateral ties. A separate commentary in the same newspaper blamed US "erroneous perceptions" and "strategic competition" thinking for recent difficulties, urging Washington to honour commitments and inject certainty into relations.