It is the US that made provocations first, imposed an avoidable crisis on the Chinese people, and yet falsely accused China of starting the crisis, said the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday, refuting remarks by the US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns that accused China of overreacting to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's highly-provocative visit to China's Taiwan island and destabilizing the region.

The remarks of Ambassador Burns confound right with wrong and once again show the US' distorted and hegemonic logic, read a statement of a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

China had repeatedly told the US the grave nature and serious harm of Pelosi's visit to Taiwan before the visit. After Pelosi's arrival in the island, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Xie Feng urgently summoned Ambassador Burns to make serious démarche and strong protest to the US side, urging the US to immediately redress the mistake. However instead of reflecting on its wrongdoing and changing course, several US officials sought to explain away the US' responsibility for escalating tensions in the Taiwan Straits and depict China as the guilty party, said the statement.

The spokesperson stressed that it is the US that made provocations first, imposed an avoidable crisis on the Chinese people, and yet falsely accused China of starting the crisis; it is the US that has applied the salami-slicing tactics to repeatedly cross the red line and undermine the one-China principle and the status quo across the Taiwan Straits, and yet falsely accused China of changing the status quo; it is the US that has been conducting gunboat diplomacy at China's doorstep, and yet sought to stigmatize and demonize China's legitimate, lawful, professional and transparent military drills.

"What the US has done has completely gone over the line. It is not China that is being irresponsible. It is Pelosi and the US government that are being extremely irresponsible," said the spokesperson.

The Foreign Ministry's statement came after Burns blamed China's strong response to Pelosi's visit to Taiwan with military drills and sanctions to the US in his first TV interview with CNN since taking office in Beijing half a year ago.

"We do not believe there should be a crisis in US-China relations over the visit - the peaceful visit - of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to Taiwan … it was a manufactured crisis by the government in Beijing. It was an overreaction," he was quoted as saying in a CNN report on Friday.

Burns also mentioned what he described as a "very spirited" and "quite contentious meeting" with Xie on August 2 late night, saying that he defended Pelosi's "right to travel to Taiwan" and "the peace and stability" across the Taiwan Straits.

Xie summoned Burns overnight to protest against Pelosi's visit after her plane landed in Taipei. He stressed that the nature of Pelosi's visit is extremely vicious and the consequence is very grave. The Chinese side will not sit idly by.