Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian's Regular Press Conference on January 12, 2021 |
2021-01-12 18:17 |
Shenzhen TV: U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo tweeted on January 11 that CCP is the biggest threat to the UN. He also criticized China's practice in international institutions such as WHO. Do you have a comment? Zhao Lijian: Mr. Pompeo certainly went to great lengths to spread political viruses. He's truly in a league of his own when it comes to weaving lies and distorting facts. I will just respond with three points. First, China has always been a defender of world peace and international order. Only recently President Xi Jinping announced a series of major initiatives at the high-level meetings commemorating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, including providing $50 million to the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan, setting up the third FAO-China South-South Cooperation Trust Fund at $50 million, and making an additional donation of $10 million to UN Women in the next five years. These are concrete actions China has undertaken to support multilateralism. Second, it is the United States that is the biggest destabilizing factor threatening global peace and security and undermining multilateral cooperation. In rampant pursuit of unilateralism, it blatantly withdraws from treaties and organizations and arbitrarily resorts to the threat of sanctions. To date it has exited a dozen of international conventions and organizations. The United States unilaterally announced the restoration of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran, and abused the venue of the UN to flagrantly smear other countries, drawing wide opposition from the international community. Such behaviors gravely undermine international cooperation in various areas, the existing international order and mechanism, and world peace, stability and security. Third, Pompeo's lying diplomacy has once again exposed the infamous "American double standard": whatever doesn't serve American interests can be cast aside, while any international cooperation with the participation of China is problematic. This is the logic of the U.S. side. As has been proven by history and reality time and again, erroneous actions that stigmatize and scapegoat China can by no means make America great again, or justify its bullying, or help with its international image and reputation. The international community should keep its eyes wide open to distinguish right from wrong and refuse to allow certain people's venom to erode global solidarity and cooperation. RIA Novosti: U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo announced in a statement yesterday that the United States has again designated Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism. Do you have any comment on this? Zhao Lijian: China always maintains that the international community should fight terrorism together, and firmly opposes U.S. political oppression and economic sanctions against Cuba under the pretext of counterterrorism. We believe the United States should develop normal state-to-state relations with Cuba on the basis of equality and mutual respect, which will serve the fundamental interests of the two countries and peoples, and contribute to peace and stability in Latin America. CNR: Vice Premier Han Zheng of the State Council attended the One Planet Summit via video-conference in Beijing yesterday. Could you offer more information on that? Zhao Lijian: On January 11, Vice Premier Han Zheng attended the One Planet Summit via video-conference in Beijing and delivered an address under the theme of "join hands on the road to Kunming toward a new journey of biodiversity governance". He put forward three proposals and called upon all parties to take the path of win-win cooperation, the path that is both ambitious and practical, the path toward common progress, which is of practical guiding significance for promoting progress of COP-15. China has always been a participant, contributor and front-runner in ecological protection. We have been faithfully implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets set out at COP-10. We have drawn red lines for ecological conservation, established a national parks system, and significantly improved land and marine ecological environment, presenting a refreshing and beautiful China. We have proposed building the Belt and Road Initiative International Green Development Coalition and conducted exchange and cooperation in environmental-protection with over 100 countries. We have launched a number of biodiversity cooperation projects and offered assistance to the best of our capability to fellow developing countries through South-South cooperation. This year, China will host COP-15 in Kunming, where a Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework will be formulated to serve as the blueprint for biodiversity protection in the next decade. We hope to use this opportunity to work with other parties to advance negotiation on the framework, set scientific and effective targets, strengthen safeguard mechanism for actions, and jointly contribute to the global cause of biodiversity protection. Bloomberg: U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday appeared to blame the coronavirus crisis on traditional Chinese medicine, saying it "originates from bats or pangolins, from the demented belief that if you grind up the scales of a pangolin you will somehow become more potent." Does the Foreign Ministry have any comment on this? Zhao Lijian: Interesting. We already reiterated our position on multiple occasions. Tracing the origin of COVID-19is a scientific issue which requires careful and meticulous studies by scientists before tenable conclusions can be reached. Groundless conjecture or hype-up of the issue will only disrupt normal international cooperation on origin-tracing. RIA Novosti: Will WHO experts be quarantined after they arrive in China? How long will they stay? And could you offer more details of what's on their agenda? Zhao Lijian: The NHC released information yesterday that upon consultation between the two sides, the WHO experts will visit China on January 14 and conduct scientific cooperation in origin-tracing with Chinese scientists. According to the current plan, they will fly to Wuhan from Singapore on by flight on January 14. We will share more information with you if there's any update. You may also contact the Chinese competent authority directly. Beijing Daily: According to initial results released by Kyrgyzstan's Central Election Commission on January 11, Sadyr Japarov won a landslide victory in the presidential election held the day before. Do you have a comment? Zhao Lijian: China extends congratulations to the |