Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin held a press briefing on August 17, 2022. Some Excerpts

Xinhua News Agency: The Foreign Ministry today put out an announcement about the upcoming Coordinators’ Meeting on the Implementation of the Follow-up Actions of the 8th Ministerial Conference of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). Could you shed some light on China’s expectations for this meeting?

Wang Wenbin: In November 2021, the 8th Ministerial Conference of FOCAC was successfully held in Dakar, capital of Senegal, marking a milestone in China-African relations. At the opening ceremony of the conference, President Xi Jinping announced that China will work with African countries to implement nine programs, which are well received as they focus on boosting the growth dynamics within African countries and upgrading China-Africa cooperation.?

After the conference was concluded, in the spirit of China-Africa friendship and cooperation, China and Africa have jointly overcome difficulties and challenges and worked together to advance the implementation of the outcomes of the 8th Ministerial Conference of FOCAC and made positive progress and important early harvests. In the face of complex and volatile international landscape and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, both China and Africa find it necessary to hold a meeting of coordinators to strengthen coordination and planning, coordinate the approach to cooperation, identify priority areas and key projects and make steady and solid progress in the follow-up work?so?as?to?deliver?more?benefit?to?the?two?peoples. By doing so, we will be able to show the international community our resolve to enhance solidarity and cooperation, defend basic norms in international relations and build a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era.?

China will continue to follow the principle of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith and the principle of pursuing the greater good and shared interests, work with the African side to inject new impetus into the growth of the China-Africa comprehensive strategic and cooperative partnership.

Associated Press of Pakistan: Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif gave an interview to the Global Times on a broad topics, including China-Pakistan relations, regional and international situation, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the?20th National Congress of the CPC, etc. I wonder if you have any comment on that.?

Wang Wenbin: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has spoken highly of China-Pakistan relations and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) on several occasions. He cares deeply about the practical cooperation between our two countries and has done a lot for its progress. This is appreciated by China. CPEC is an economic cooperation initiative that is conducive to regional connectivity, peace, stability and development. China is ready to work with Pakistan to follow through on the common understanding between Chinese and Pakistani leaders and on the basis of ensuring sound implementation and operation of existing projects, further focus on cooperation in such areas as industries, livelihood, agriculture, science and technology and information technology, so as to build CPEC into a demonstration program of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.?

Under the strong leadership of President Xi Jinping, China has made remarkable development achievements. We believe that a successful 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China will provide a new blueprint for China’s development going forward, greatly promote China’s friendly cooperation with Pakistan and other countries around the world and make important contribution to the progress of humanity.?

Phoenix TV: On August 16, Russian President Putin said in his address to 10th Moscow Conference on International Security that Pelosi’s “escapade towards Taiwan is not just a voyage by an irresponsible politician”, but “a thoroughly planned provocation”. It is part of the “deliberate US strategy designed to destabilize the situation and sow chaos in the region and the world. It is a brazen demonstration of disrespect for other countries and their own international commitments.” He added that the US tries to “preserve their domination” and the West wants to “shift the blame for their own failures to other countries, namely Russia and China” to divert the attention of their own citizens. The West is “striving to expand its bloc-based system to the Asia-Pacific region, like it did with NATO in Europe.” What is China’s comment?

Wang Wenbin: China highly appreciates the remarks by President Putin. Since US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, more than 170 countries have spoken up for justice. They reiterated their one-China commitment and support for China’s efforts to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity. The latest remarks by President Putin demonstrate the high-level strategic coordination between China and Russia, and the firm support the two countries have rendered each other on issues concerning their respective?core interests. China is ready to continue to work with the international community to jointly defend the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and safeguard regional and international peace and stability.

AFP: A report released by UN special rapporteur says that minorities in Xinjiang have been drafted into forced labor in the sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing. Do you have any comment ?

Wang Wenbin: Certain special rapporteur chooses to believe in lies and disinformation about Xinjiang spread by the US and some other Western countries and anti-China forces, abuse his authority, blatantly violate the code of conduct of the special procedure, malignly smear and denigrate China and serve as a political tool for anti-China forces. China strongly condemns this.

There has never been “forced labor” in Xinjiang. The Chinese government follows a people-centered development philosophy and attaches great importance to protecting the rights and interests of workers. We protect the equal right of workers from all ethnic groups to seek employment, to participate in economic and social life, and to share the dividends of socioeconomic progress. Some forces manipulate Xinjiang-related issues and fabricated the disinformation on “forced labor” in Xinjiang. In essence, they are using human rights as a pretext to undermine Xinjiang’s prosperity and stability and contain China’s development and revitalization. Their scheme will never succeed.?

We solemnly urge certain special rapporteur to immediately change course, respect plain facts, observe the mandate of the Human Rights Council and code of conduct of the special procedure, perform duty in a fair and objective manner, stop using lies to stoke confrontation and create division, stop politicizing and instrumentalizing human rights issues, and stop serving certain countries’ political scheme to suppress and contain China by abusing the UN platform.?

CCTV: White House National Security Council Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell said during a press call that “China has overreacted” to Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and used it to try to change the status quo, and the goal is to intimidate and coerce Taiwan. He said that the US will continue to “support Taiwan in line with our longstanding policy”, and that includes conducting standard air and maritime transits through the Taiwan Strait, supporting Taiwan’s self-defense, continuing to advance economic and trade relationship with Taiwan and stepping up the US’s military presence. He also called on China to reopen relevant channels for communication and cooperation and do “what the world demands of responsible powers”. Do you have any comment?

Wang Wenbin: What the senior US official said is sheer misrepresentation of facts and distortion of principles. It is clear that the US is trying to defend the indefensible by applying a gangster logic and acting like a bully.

Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan seriously undermined China’s core interests, and China has every reason to respond resolutely. All the consequences arising therefrom shall be borne by the US. China had made those points perfectly clear long beforehand. We said it and we mean it. The US has no reason to feel surprised.

Due to the egregious impact of Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, China had to?suspend bilateral climate talks with the US. Let me be clear, the US does not represent the entire world. China will remain actively involved in international and multilateral cooperation on climate change, continue to work hard to meet its carbon peak and carbon neutrality targets, actively participate in main-channel negotiations on climate change, provide other developing countries with support and help as our ability permits, and make our own contributions to tackling the global climate challenge. For the US, instead of making unwarranted criticisms or viciously smearing other countries, what it needs to do is to take its responsibilities seriously and honour its own commitments. It must stop confounding right with wrong and deflecting attention.

China once again urges the US to abide by the basic norms in international relations including respecting other countries’ sovereignty and territorial integrity, and non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs, return to the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués, stop undermining China’s core interests and create necessary conditions for China-US cooperation.

China Daily: Today 40 years ago, the August 17 Communiqué between China and the US was published. How can this history inspire current China-US relations?

Wang Wenbin:  The August 17 Communiqué, the Shanghai Communiqué and the Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between China and the US constitute the political foundation for China-US relations and are all based on the one-China principle. The US recognized that the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government of China. It also recognized China’s position that there is only one China and Taiwan is part of China. And on this basis, the US met the three preconditions put forward by China, namely severing so-called “diplomatic relations” and abrogating the “mutual defense treaty” with the Taiwan authorities and withdrawing US military forces from Taiwan. This made it possible for China and the US, countries with different social systems and ideologies and at different development stages, to have dialogue and cooperation, and achieve important outcomes that have benefited both sides and the world at large.

The US has backpedaled on the one-China principle. It substantially relaxed restrictions on official interactions with Taiwan. It increased frequent military contact with Taiwan and arms sales to Taiwan in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Not long ago, US House?Speaker Pelosi made a provocative visit to Taiwan in disregard of China’s opposition, blatantly violated its commitment of maintaining only unofficial relations with Taiwan. The US also keeps fudging and hollowing out the one-China principle.

Facts have shown that when the one-China principle is honored, China-US relations can grow smoothly and cross-Strait peace can be effectively maintained. When the one-China principle is undermined, China-US relations would suffer turbulence and regression, and the cross-Strait situation could face severe challenges.

The China-US relationship is now at a critical juncture. Undermining the one-China principle is risky and irresponsible. Just as Dr. Kissinger who was part of the drafting of the three China-US joint communiqués pointed out, it’s essential that the one-China principle be maintained and “the US should not by subterfuge or a gradual process develop something of a two-China solution”.?We hope the US side can draw lessons from history, return to the provisions of the three joint communiqués, strictly abide by the one-China principle, and stop going further down the wrong path of distorting, manipulating, fudging and hollowing out the one-China principle.

AFP: According to media reports, China is planning to establish military outposts both in Pakistan and Afghanistan in order to protect its strategic investment. Do you have any comment on this and if true, do you have any more details?

Wang Wenbin: I have not heard about that###

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