China responds to Mike Pence’s ‘unwarranted accusations’

China’s Foreign Affairs ministry has accused Mike Pence of making “unwarranted accusations” of interference in US politics.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accused US Vice-President Mike Pence of having “slandered China” and making “unwarranted accusations” that it was interfering in US domestic politics.

In an angry statement issued by China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ms Hua Chunying this morning, China accused the US Vice-President resident of using “hearsay evidence” and “creating something out of thin air” in his hard line speech last night, claiming that China was seeking to interfere in the upcoming US midterm elections.

She called on the US to “stop groundlessly accusing and slandering China and harming China’s interests, and China-US ties” and to take action to improve relations.

The vehemence of the US Vice-President’s widesweeping attack on China, made in a widely leaked speech in Washington, appears to have caught Beijing off guard, despite the increasingly belligerent comments of the Trump administration towards China.

It comes as the Trump administration has imposed tariffs on some $US250 billion worth of imports from China, with threats to impose tariffs on almost all of China’s $US500 billion exports to the US.

It is also pressing Beijing on the military front with freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea and tough sanctions on China’s military equipment buying arm for buying military equipment from Russia.

A front-page article in today’s China Daily newspaper, published before the Pence speech, contained an optimistic article headed “Sino-US ties said hopeful for long term” which said ties between the US and China would “continue to deepen” over the long term, despite trade frictions.

But the Chinese government was forced to hit back this morning and respond to the Pence speech which also accuses President Xi’s government of taking a “sharp U-turn towards control and oppression.”

US Vice-President Mike Pence. Picture: AP

Pence also spoke out against the detention of thousands of largely Muslim Uygurs in the western region of Xinjiang, in camps which, he said, were a “deliberate attempt by Beijing to strangle Uygur culture and stamp out the Muslim faith”.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said China was “unswervingly” pursuing a path of peaceful development and was committed to developing “friendly and co operative relations” with all other countries.

She said it was “very ridiculous for the US to stigmatise its normal exchanges and co-operation” with China as China interfering in its internal affairs and elections.

“China always follows the principle of noninterference in others’ internal affairs, and we have no interest in meddling in US internal affairs and elections,” she said.

She said “any malicious slander” against China was “futile.”

She said the Chinese people were “highly confident” that their model of “Socialism with Chinese characteristics” was the right way to go for the country’s development.

She said China was continuing with its policy of reform and opening up, a policy which had underwritten its strong economic development, along with the hard work of the Chinese people.

“No one can stop the Chinese people from steadily marching ahead along the path of Socialism with Chinese characteristics and making greater achievements,” she said.

“The efforts made by anyone to distort the facts are doomed to be in vain.”

The statement reaffirmed the Chinese view that it remains ready to work with the US in a way that did not involve conflict and confrontation and was based on “mutual respect and win-win co-operation.”

“We urge the US to correct its wrongdoing, stop groundlessly accusing and slandering China and harming China’s interests and China-US ties and take concrete action to maintain the sounds and steady development of China-US relations,” she said.

While relations between the US and China have been strained for some time, the Pence speech now appears to have taken the attacks from the US side on China to a new level.

It now appears that relations between the world’s two largest economies are becoming more bitter by the day with no sign of improvement in sight.