Responding to American accusations, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying denounced the US for interference in the affairs of China and other nations at a February 24 press briefing, the Chinese-language news site guancha.cn reported.
She was asked by a CCTV reporter to comment on State Department spokesman Ned Price’s statement that China and Russia ” want a world order … that would be profoundly illiberal, an order … in many ways destructive, rather than additive.”
Hua responded, “I have taken note of the relevant remarks of the spokesperson of the US State Department. About respecting national sovereignty and territorial integrity, the US side probably isn’t qualified to tell China what to do! Regarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Chinese people have a particularly real and deep understanding and feeling.”
In the modern era, Hua added, China has suffered from colonial aggression by the Eight-Nation Alliance that invaded China in 1900. China “has a particularly tragic memory of losing its rights and suffering national humiliation.”
“Just over 20 years ago,” Hua added, “the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia was bombed by NATO, killing three Chinese journalists and injuring many others. NATO still owes China a debt of blood. And today, we still face the real threat of the US and its so-called allies wantonly interfering in China’s internal affairs on issues related to Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan, undermining China’s sovereignty and security.”
“China,” Hua continued, “is also the only permanent member of the Security Council that has not achieved complete reunification of the motherland. Because of this, China has always resolutely upheld the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the basic norms governing international relations; the country’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity; and international fairness and justice.”
Hua said that in the 250 years since the founding of the United States, no period of two decades has elapsed without an American foreign military intervention. “The justification for military intervention,” she said, “is sometimes ‘democracy,’ sometimes ‘human rights,’ and sometimes outright fabrication. This country’s understanding of what it means to respect national sovereignty and territorial integrity must be different from ours. The international community is also very clear about this.”
Regarding the American claim that Russia has the backing of China Hua said, “I believe Russia would be very unhappy to hear such a statement. Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council and an independent power. The Russian side decides to formulate and implement its own diplomacy and strategy entirely based on its own judgment and the interests of its own country. I also must stress that the establishment of Sino-Russian relations on the basis of ‘non-alignment, non-confrontation, and non-targeting of third parties’ differs fundamentally from the ideological line of the United States, which … creates confrontation and division. China neither is interested in nor cares to imitate the Cold War mentality of ‘friend or foe.’”
Hua Chunying added, regarding the Sino-Russian Joint Statement of February 4, 2022, “We would like to ask the US side to read it carefully. China and Russia strengthened strategic communication and coordination.”
The two countries, she said, “firmly safeguard the system in which the United Nations plays a core coordinating role in international affairs and uphold the purposes of the UN Charter. The international order based on international law, including the principles of peace and security, is precisely a manifestation of responsibility and a positive approach to international strategic security issues.”