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Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin’s Regular Press Conference on July 18, 2022

CCTV: John Bolton, former White House national security adviser, said earlier in an interview that he had helped plan coups in foreign countries. There are media reports saying that it is very common for the US to instigate coups in other countries. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: I noted that when this former senior US official mentioned his experience planning coups in foreign countries, he spoke unashamedly and was even proud of it. This means overthrowing foreign governments is deep in the bones of how the US conducts its foreign policy. 

Lindsey A. O’Rourke, an Assistant Professor at Boston College wrote in her book Covert Regime Change: America’s Secret Cold War that the US engaged in 64 covert attempts and six open attempts at regime change between 1947 and 1989. The US’s acts of regime change remain unchecked even after the end of the Cold War. For years, the US has created political unrest in Latin America, played a part in the “Arab Spring”, and instigated color revolutions in Europe and Asia. Senior US officials even went to the streets themselves in some of those countries to support opposition forces in stoking political confrontation. 

Bolton’s admission is so revealing. Leading US politicians trumpet the so-called “rules-based international order” for one purpose: to ensure that the US can easily interfere in other countries’ affairs and overthrow their governments at its own will. This is exactly the kind of “rules” and “order” that people like Bolton want absolutely to defend. The people of the world, however, will not let them. 

CCTV: The US Department of State submitted the 2022 Elie Wiesel Act Report to Congress and released publicly the first ever comprehensive US Strategy to Anticipate, Prevent, and Respond to Atrocities on July 14. The report once again accused China of perpetrating “genocide and crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang and made allegations about “forced labor” in Xinjiang in the China section. What is China’s comment?

Wang Wenbin: The report’s section on China distorts and smears the human rights conditions in Xinjiang, wantonly attacks China’s Xinjiang policy, tramples on international law and basic norms in international relations and lacks factual basis. It is nothing more than a repetition of the US’s lies on Xinjiang-related issues.

As we have previously stressed, the issues related to Xinjiang are not about human rights, ethnicity or religion. They are about fighting terrorism and separatism. The government’s counterterrorism and deradicalization measures have substantially turned the security situation around in Xinjiang. Thanks to these measures, there has been zero violent terrorist incident over the past five years. For more than 60 years since the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region was established, the region’s economy has grown 160 times. Its Uyghur population expanded from 2.2 million to about 12 million, and average life expectancy there increased from 30 to 74.7 years. Workers of all ethnic backgrounds in Xinjiang are free to choose their occupations according to their own will, and fully enjoy the protection of their labor rights and remuneration.

For quite some time, the US has been propagating and playing up lies about genocide, forced labor and crimes against humanity and using them as the basis to engage in a massive campaign to smear, sanction and suppress China. Just weeks ago, the US put the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act into effect despite China’s strong opposition in an attempt to engender forced unemployment and return to poverty in Xinjiang. Now by issuing the so-called report and strategy, Washington is continuing to unscrupulously discredit and attack China. This is another example of the US undermining human rights, rules and the rule of law in the name of exercising them. The intent to destabilize Xinjiang and use Xinjiang to contain China is all too clear.

If the US truly cares about the issue of genocide, it should issue a report on genocide against Native Americans, investigate and hold accountable those responsible for slaughtering millions of Native Americans and committing forced migration and cultural genocide against them, and apologize to and compensate the Indian community still suffering discrimination and living at the bottom of the social-economic ladder. 

If the US truly cares about the issue of forced labor, it should issue a report on forced labor inside the US, thoroughly investigate the modern-day slavery of at least half a million people in the US and the trafficking of nearly 100,000 people into the US for forced labor each year, and ratify at once the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

If the US truly cares about the issue of crimes against humanity, it should issue a report on the crimes against humanity committed by US troops in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, etc., bring to justice the perpetrators who abused prisoners of war and slaughtered civilians at their own will, deliver accountability to the families of the 400,000 innocent victims killed by the US military and prevent such atrocities from happening again. 

No one can hide facts forever and justice will eventually prevail. Blind to its own human rights record but obsessed with lying about and attacking other countries -- the US is acting like a mafia boss and the world knows it. China will do everything necessary to defend its sovereignty, security and development interests. Washington will not succeed in its attempts to propagate lies about Xinjiang and use Xinjiang-related issues to interfere in China’s internal affairs. 

Phoenix TV: President Biden said in a briefing during his visit to Saudi Arabia that the US and Saudi Arabia will cooperate in developing 5G and 6G networks and the relevant technology solution will outcompete other platforms, including from China. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: 5G is a technological innovation for the world to share. In recent years, countries and carriers in the Middle East, including the Gulf region have had excellent cooperation with Chinese companies in the 5G sector, which has benefited people on both sides tremendously. This has had a demonstration effect for efforts to develop high quality Belt and Road cooperation. This is also evidence of the quality, security and reliability of Chinese information technologies. 

Any attempt to interfere in 5G development, application and cooperation through administrative means or even resorting to bullying and coercion would only impede access to 5G worldwide, particularly in developing countries. More importantly, it is against the principle of fair competition and inconsistent with the common interests of the international community. We believe that the vast majority of countries in the world, including those in the Gulf region and the rest of the Middle East, will make independent policy decisions based on their own interests, and create an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for businesses from China and elsewhere in the world.

PTI: Do you have any update on Sunday’s military talks between Indian and Chinese commanders to resolve the border-related issues?

Wang Wenbin: On July 17, China and India held the 16th round of Corps Commander Level Meeting in the Western Sector of the China-India boundary at the Moldo-Chushul border meeting point on the Indian side. The Chinese side will release further information soon. Please stay tuned. 

AFP: The Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers said in an interview yesterday that a key step to restoring Australia-China ties would be to lift the ban on Australian coal imports. What’s China’s response to this comment? Is there any plan to allow coal shipments again?

Wang Wenbin: I would like to reiterate that China’s position is consistent and clear on practical cooperation with all countries, including with Australia. We hope the Australian side will seize the opportunities in our bilateral relations, take concrete actions, shape up a right perception of China, handle China-Australia economic and trade relations under the principle of mutual respect and mutual benefit, work with China in the same direction to reduce liabilities and build positive dynamics for improving bilateral relations, and create enabling conditions for the sound and steady development of economic and trade ties.

Beijing Youth Daily: According to reports including by the BBC, members of the British Special Air Service (SAS) posted in Afghanistan “repeatedly killed” captives and unarmed civilians, and even “competed with each other to get the most kills”. The inquiry also found that the troops were suspected of crime scene cover-ups and that officials concealed the cases. What is your comment?

Wang Wenbin: What these reports uncover is simply shocking and outrageous. It reminds me of the earlier revelations of the killing of Afghan civilians by US and Australian troops. US and its allies’ atrocious abuses of human rights that challenge human conscience are not isolated cases. They are persistent, systemic and prevalent recurrences.

According to reports, between 2003 and 2008, thousands of Iraqi civilians were abused by British soldiers in ways such as detention, beating, humiliation, sexual assault and even murder. The US’s track record was even more abhorring. Over the past nearly 20 years, the US launched more than 90,000 air strikes on countries including Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, claiming as many as 48,000 civilian lives. Farmers harvesting in the fields, children playing on the streets, families fleeing from wars and villagers hiding inside buildings all became US troops’ targets.

Worse still, instead of reflecting on their atrocities, the UK and the US tried every possible way to deflect the blame. According to media reports, the Overseas Operations Act 2021 introduced by the British Parliament shields British soldiers who committed torture and other serious crimes overseas and hampers efforts to hold the perpetrators fully accountable. The British Ministry of Defence claimed to have conducted extensive investigation into British soldiers’ acts in Afghanistan and Iraq, but 90% of the alleged war crimes were not looked into. Earlier, the US government sanctioned ICC officials who had been investigating war crimes allegedly committed by US troops in the war in Afghanistan.

These are the facts. Those who are most vocal about defending human rights have turned out to be the deadliest murderers of innocent civilians; and those most fervently attacking other countries’ human rights conditions are the ones who should be put in the dock on human rights. There should be a thorough international investigation into the UK’s and US’s war crimes and human rights violations, let justice be done for the innocent victims and protect people all over the world from more bullying and cruelty.

China News Service: According to reports, the Philippine Department of Transportation recently said that they were instructed by President Marcos to have consultations with China on loan agreement on three railway projects including the Subic-Clark Railway Project as soon as possible. What is China’s comment?  

Wang Wenbin: The Philippines is a friend and a neighbor of China. China always sees the Philippines as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy. With the new Philippine government coming into office, China-Philippines relations are at a new starting point. Not long ago, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited the Philippines and had in-depth communication with the new Philippine government. The two sides identified four key areas of cooperation, namely large-scale agriculture, infrastructure, energy and people-to-people exchange, so as to jointly carry forward the friendship and cooperation and deliver more benefits to the two countries and the two peoples.

Infrastructure cooperation is a highlight in the practical cooperation between China and the Philippines in the past six years. We have jointly completed key projects such as bridges and dams. The construction of more projects, including three railways, are well underway. China welcomes President Marcos’s instruction to the responsible department on discussing the projects with China. We will coordinate seamlessly with the new Philippine government on this, move the projects forward, explore new projects while implementing existing ones, and launch more projects that will set new benchmarks for our cooperation and help upgrade Philippine infrastructure in both traditional and emerging sectors.

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The following question was raised after the press conference: According to reports, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement on July 15 that the US State Department has approved the potential sale of military technical assistance to the “Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US” worth an estimated $108 million. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: The US arms sales to China’s Taiwan region seriously violate the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiqués, especially the August 17 Communiqué of 1982. The sales gravely undermine China’s sovereignty and security interests, and severely harm China-US relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. China firmly opposes and strongly condemns this. We have made serious demarches to the US side over this.

We urge the US side to abide by the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiqués, revoke the above-mentioned arms sales plan, stop arms sales to and military contact with Taiwan and stop creating factors that could lead to tensions in the Taiwan Strait. China will continue to take resolute and strong measures to firmly defend its sovereignty and security interests.

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