On the Regular Press Conference on 4 December 2020, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ms. Hua Chunying commented on the illegal detention of Huawei CFO, and the latest slander of US Trump Administration etc.
Bloomberg: There have been news reports that the U.S. Justice Department is in talks with Meng Wanzhou’s legal team about a possible resolution in the legal case against the chief financial officer of Huawei. The deal, if signed, could allow her to return home from Canada in exchange for admitting criminal wrongdoing. Does the foreign ministry have any further information or comments on it?
Hua Chunying: I don’t know where this information came from. But frankly speaking, the report reminds me of the 2013 book American Trap by former Alstrom executive Frédéric Pierucci, in which he described what he had gone through in a very detailed manner. What you’ve just mentioned is almost the same with his experience.
China has an explicit position on this issue. Ms. Meng Wanzhou is innocent. The nature of the Meng Wanzhou incident is very clear. It is entirely out of the U.S. government’s political agenda to suppress Chinese hi-tech enterprises, and Canada played a very disgraceful role in this process. This is in every way a grave political incident.
China once again urges the US side to immediately withdraw the arrest warrant and extradition request for Ms. Meng Wanzhou, and urges the Canadian side to immediately release Ms. Meng Wanzhou so that she can return to China safely at an early date.
Shenzhen TV: According to reports, Canadian prosecutors will ask a court to disregard a former U.S. government lawyer’s affidavit submitted by Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou’s legal team in her U.S. extradition case. The affidavit was submitted in July in which Michael Gottlieb, who was a White House lawyer under President Barack Obama, testified that U.S. President Donald Trump said he was willing to use Meng as a bargaining chip in trade talks with China. Do you have any comment?
Hua Chunying: Facts have fully proved that the Meng Wanzhou case is a serious political incident. The U.S. Government’s actions on it are not for any legal reasons, but out of the true purpose to suppress Chinese hi-tech enterprises and obstruct China’s science and technology development. The government of Canada acted as the U.S. government’s accomplice in this process. It arbitrarily detained an innocent Chinese citizen who didn’t violate any Canadian law, arousing strong indignation of the Chinese people and leading to the nosedive of China-Canada relations over the past two years. Once again, we urge the Canadian government to own up to the problem and make a correct decision that is consistent with justice, rule of law and the fundamental interests of the Canadian people.
NHK: On Wednesday the U.S. government announced sanctions on visas of the CPC members and their immediate family members. What’s your comment on this? It says the policy aims to counter the “malign” influence of the CPC. Do you agree with them?
Hua Chunying: Do you think I’d agree? How ridiculous this is! When I read these comments by some extremist anti-China individuals in the United States, I see before my eyes Don Quixote holding his lance. It is ludicrous and pathetic.
I briefed China’s principled position yesterday. This morning, I read the U.S. State Department spokesperson’s statement. As a diplomat, you need to know your own country and the countries you are dealing with. You need to at least keep in mind equality and mutual respect.
The leadership of the CPC is the defining feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics, which is enshrined in our country’s Constitution. It is the Chinese people’s common belief that “there’s no New China without the CPC.” Thanks to the CPC leadership, the Chinese people have achieved independence, freedom, liberation and steady progress in national development. The past 99 years saw the number of CPC members growing from over 50 to more than 92 million. The CPC and the Chinese people are inseparable, and the Party always relies on the people, serves the people and is deeply rooted in the people. That’s why the Chinese people’s support rate with the CPC and the Party-led Chinese government has been above 90 percent for years.
When the United States established diplomatic ties with China over 40 years ago, it knew China is a socialist country led by the CPC, and the China-U.S. relationship is based on the consensus that both sides acknowledge and respect each other’s different social system. Over the past four decades or so, with the joint efforts made by China, the United States and people in the two countries, China-U.S. relations have achieved huge progress, which has delivered enormous benefits to both peoples and contributed greatly to handling global challenges and safeguarding world peace, stability and development.
However, for some time, some U.S. politicians have been wantonly demonizing China and viciously attacking the CPC in an attempt to drive a wedge between the Party and the Chinese people and cut off our inherent bond. By hyping up “red panic” and “white horror” in the United States, their true aim is to politicize and weaponize ideological differences and kidnap China-U.S. relations and American public opinions in order to serve their selfish agenda.
I deeply hope they can listen to the views of the Chinese people, especially our lovely young people, on the practice of a very small number of anti-China politicians in the United States. As proven time and again by facts, every time the U.S. politicians smear China, the Chinese people become more united, patriotic and sincere in endorsing the CPC leadership. The more those politicians do to maliciously attack the CPC and suppress and persecute Party members, to a larger extent they make themselves enemy to all 1.4 billion Chinese. Their attempt to decouple with the CPC is in fact an act to decouple with China, a country that has one fifth of the world’s population, to decouple with the world, and to decouple with the future. It is apparently against the trend of the times and against the Chinese and American people’s aspiration of having friendly exchanges. In the end, it will only inevitably, deeply damage the interests of the United States itself.
In fact, we are hearing more and more rational voices of criticism and rejection in the United States. Some say the country’s current practice is no other than self-mutilation.
AFP: Yesterday the top U.S. intelligence chief branded China as the greatest threat to democracy and freedom of the world since WWII. He also accused China of stealing U.S. business secrets and defense technologies. I want to know if you have any comment on that?
Hua Chunying: Now, the United States is in the midst of a fierce fight against COVID-19. In fact, many Chinese people like me are closely following that and feel sorry for the American people. But we don’t understand why some politicians in America do not seem to care. They are still seeking and creating enemies for themselves worldwide.
The NDI Director said China is the No.1 threat in his article. With such an eye-catching headline but unsubstantiated claims all over it, this so-called article serves no purpose at all other than repeating lies and rumors, making China look as ugly as possible and trumpeting “China threat” as loud as possible. It is just another miscellany of lies patched up by this agency of the US administration in recent days.
Over the past 70 years and more, China has grown from a poor and weak country into the world’s second largest economy through peaceful development rather than colonization, expansion and aggression. Over the past 70 years and more, 850 million Chinese have been lifted out of poverty, contributing over 70% to global poverty reduction. China has also been playing an important role in promoting the world economic development. According to the latest OECD report, China’s economic growth will contribute to more than one third of global growth in 2021. Since 1990, China has participated in 26 UN peace-keeping operations, sent more than 40,000-strong peacekeepers, making us the largest peace-keeping troops contributor among the P5. Wherever they go, the Chinese peacekeepers are recognized and welcomed for their contributions to regional peace and stability. China has never initiated a war, nor has it ever violated an inch of territory of any other country. Facts have proved time and again that China has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of international order.
Some in the United States has accused China of being No.1 threat. Then let’s take a look at the United States. We all know that in recent years, the United States has been championing unilateralism, quitting international organizations and treaties, and destroying multilateralism and international cooperation. It has been warming itself up to the Cold War mentality, advocating great power competition, and upgrading its nuclear arsenals which further disrupts global strategic balance. As to who is protecting peace and who is destroying order, the international community, including U.S. allies, knows the answer clearly. Many in the United States also have begun to seriously think about this. The United States has fought no war for only 16 of its nearly 250 years of history, making it the most belligerent nation in the history of the world. Of the more than 190 members of the United Nations, only three have never been at war with or interfered with by the United States. Authoritative international opinion poll found that 45% of respondents believe the United States is a major threat to the world. A 10-nation poll involving Germany, Japan and ROK suggests that about half or more of respondents think the United States poses a significant threat to their country. Recently there are some American scholars and media that publicly said that the biggest threat to the United States is no other but itself.
We urge certain US politicians to respect facts, stop making and spreading disinformation, political virus and political lies, and stop undermining China-US relations, mutual trust and cooperation. Otherwise, they will gain nothing but become the laughingstock of the international community.
On whether China threatens global freedom and democracy, I wonder what he means when he says “democracy and freedom”. A recent case has laid bare the true nature of the United States and its few allies on the values of democracy and human rights. If he says that China is undermining the country’s freedom, he means that China is undermining the freedom of the US to do whatever it wants to others, to interfere in others’ internal affairs, and to trample on others’ sovereignty, security and development interests. And I believe that more and more countries will stand on the right side of history and on the side of fairness and justice.
