Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Tuesday urged the United States to stop fabricat-ing and spreading lies and rumours of all kinds to smear and denigrate China, and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs in the name of so-called human rights issues.
In a recent speech, U.S. Secretary of State An-tony Blinken slandered China on issues related to Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.
In response, Zhao told a daily news briefing that the denigrating accusations about “genocide”, “crimes against humanity” and “detention camps” in Xinjiang in Blinken’s speech are nothing but the biggest lies of the century.
Zhao said China has repeatedly clarified the truth by presenting facts on that. Since the peaceful libera-tion of Tibet more than 70 years ago, Tibet has wit-nessed economic prosperity, social harmony, and religious and cultural development. Since the im-plementation of the Law on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the so-called “beautiful sight to behold” in the eyes of certain U.S. politicians has vanished.
“All the lies mongered by the U.S. side have been shattered in front of facts and truth time and again. The more desperate the U.S. politicians are in repeating such lies as ‘genocide,’ the more will be exposed about their bullying and hypocritical nature, the more the U.S. credibility and reputation will be corrupted and the stronger indignation will be triggered among the Chinese against the U.S. acts,” he said.
He stressed that all these accusations the United States is pinning on China mirror exactly its original sins and numerous crimes that cannot be washed away. “Speaking of the original sins, the American Indians are still living in scattered reservations after surviving the brutal past of genocide and crimes against humanity. African Americans were subject to forced labor in cotton plantations, and still ‘cannot breathe’ today.”
He said there is much more about the egregious crimes of the United States. To be specific, the re-signed COVID-19 policy of the U.S. government has cost more than one million lives, a price for its irresponsibility and inability. The continuous shoot-ings in the United States, which claim more than 110 lives a day on average, have broken not only the so-called American dream, but also the hearts of millions of Americans.
The United States has wantonly invaded and interfered militarily in other countries, killing over 800,000 people and turning more than 20 million into refugees in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, he added.
“I wonder in what position the U.S. officials are to criticize China in a patronizing and brazen man-ner?” Zhao said.
He urged the United States to earnestly respect China’s sovereignty, security and development in-terests, stop fabricating and spreading lies and ru-mors of all kinds to smear and denigrate China, and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs in the name of so-called human rights issues.
“The United States should face squarely to its deplorable human rights track record, stop acting like a condescending lecturer and keep its own house in order,” Zhao said.
Zhao said, according to the statistics of Chinese competent authorities, bilateral trade volume between China and India stood at $125.66 billion in 2021. On that basis, China remains India’s largest trading partner, and the total trade volume topped $100 billion for the first time. The disparity in trade figures published by China and India is a result of different statistical measurement scales. China does not object to the development of normal trade relations between India and the US, and is not that interested in the changes of the ranking in trade volume. What we care about is whether the Indian side has the will and takes real actions to create a fair, transparent, sustainable and sound environment for bilateral trade and investment, further expand mutually-beneficial cooperation between the two sides and deliver tangible benefits to the two countries and two peoples.
You mentioned the China-India border issue. At present, the border situation is stable in general. The two sides have been maintaining close communica-tion through diplomatic and military channels. China always believes that the boundary question doesn’t represent the whole of China-India relations and we should put it in an appropriate position in bilateral relations and under effective control and management. We hope India will work with China to continuously enhance mutual trust, strengthen practical cooperation, and ensure that the bilateral relations will move forward along the right track, deliver more benefits to the two peoples and make greater contributions to the region and beyond.
Zhao said, I would like to refer you to my col-leagues at the Ministry of Commerce as your ques-tion concerns very specific matters. In principle, I would like to say that China never seeks trade sur-plus. We stand ready to take measures to advance normal trade with India.
He said, we have noted the latest IAEA report on the Iranian nuclear issue. China supports the IAEA in continuing to follow the principle of objectivity, neutrality and impartiality, and in strictly complying with its mandate to carry out supervision and verifi-cation of Iran’s implementation of the JCPOA. China supports the IAEA and Iran in resolving outstanding issues of safeguards through dialogue and consultation.
As negotiations on resuming compliance with the JCPOA come to the home stretch, relevant parties should enhance their sense of urgency, step up diplomatic efforts, reach consensus on the remaining outstanding issues as soon as possible and remove obstacles to resuming the full and effective implementation of the JCPOA. Once the implemen-tation resumes, all the problems mentioned in the report will be resolved. China hopes that all parties will make efforts to create necessary conditions and sound atmosphere to such end and refrain from tak-ing any action that may undermine the diplomatic efforts.
Zhao said, we have noted relevant reports. As is well known, Okinodori is a reef, not an island. It is submerged underwater except for less than ten square meters at high tide. However, Japan, in pursuit of selfish interest, has illegally staked claim to nearly 700,000 square kilometers of jurisdictional waters based on the tiny reef. This encroaches upon the high seas and international seabed areas and undermines the overall interests of the international community. According to UNCLOS, Okinodori is a reef, not an island. As such, it is not entitled to an EEZ or continental shelf. Japan’s claim of an EEZ and continental shelf based on it violates international law.— Xinhua
