Photo taken on April 4, 2018 shows the entrance to the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing, capital of China. (Xinhua/Li He)
"This is confounding white with black. The guilty party is shifting the blame onto the innocent," said a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry in response to a report released by the U.S., accusing China of not complying with commitments to suspending nuclear testing and to non-proliferation.
BEIJING, April 16 -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Thursday that accusations against China made in a U.S. report were groundless and not worth refuting.
Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks after the U.S. State Department released an executive summary of the 2020 Arms Control Compliance Report Wednesday, accusing China of not complying with commitments to suspending nuclear testing and to non-proliferation, and questioning China's report on its implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).
Positioning itself as a judge and model, the United States has kept concocting the so-called annual "arms control compliance report" in recent years, in which it sticks its nose into other countries' arms control and non-proliferation policies and measures, Zhao told a press briefing.
"This is confounding white with black. The guilty party is shifting the blame onto the innocent," he said.
The Chinese side believes that as important pillars for maintaining international peace, security and stability, relevant treaties and mechanisms in arms control, non-proliferation should be observed and implemented, Zhao said.
He stressed that China, with its earnest fulfillment of international obligations, firm commitment to multilateralism and active participation in international cooperation, has made important contributions to international arms control and non-proliferation systems, as well as global peace and security.
In contrast, the United States has followed the principle of "America First," broken agreements and withdrawn from multilateral mechanisms in recent years, Zhao said.
For example, the United States has pulled out the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and the Arms Trade Treaty. Meanwhile, it obstructed negotiations for a protocol with a verification regime of the BWC, failed to complete the destruction of its stockpiled chemical weapons, and intended to expand its military forces in an all-round way.
These actions, which seriously undermined global strategic balance and stability and hindered international arms control and disarmament processes, are condemned by the international community, Zhao said, urging the U.S. side to reflect upon itself and stop pointing fingers.
