BEIJING (AP) – China and Russia’s foreign ministers on Tuesday reaffirmed their country’s close ties amid intense criticism and new Western sanctions against them over human rights.
Wang Yi and Sergei Lavrov have rejected their authoritarian political systems from the outside, saying they are promoting global progress on climate change to the coronavirus pandemic.
At their initial meeting on Monday in the southern Chinese city of Nanning, Wang and Lavrov accused the United States of interfering in the affairs of other countries and urging them to rejoin Iran’s nuclear deal, something that President Joe Biden’s new government cautiously approaches. has. Russia and China both maintain close ties with Tehran, sharing a firm approach to any political opposition.
The two officials continued that rhetoric on Tuesday at a news conference, where Wang sharply criticized the coordinated sanctions imposed by the European Union, Britain, Canada and the United States on Chinese officials for human rights violations in the far-western Xinjiang region. .
“Countries must stand together to oppose all forms of unilateral sanctions,” Wang said. “These measures will not be accepted by the international community.”
Lavrov said sanctions were drawing Russia and China closer together and accused the West of imposing its own rules on everyone, which they said would support the world order.
“If Europe breaks these relations and simply destroys all the mechanisms that have been created for years … then it will probably, objectively, lead to the fact that our relations with China are developing faster than what remains of the relations with European countries,” he said. Lavrov said.
In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the two ministers said that no single country may impose its form of democracy on any other.
“Interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation under the pretext of ‘promoting democracy’ is unacceptable,” the statement said.
China says members of the Uyghur and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang have voluntarily participated in vocational training and de-radicalization courses, and deny the allegations that more than 1 million are locked up in prison-like retraining camps, where they are forced to abandon their indigenous culture and promise loyalty to the ruling Communist Party and its leader Xi Jinping. Media sales, foreign governments and activist groups say abuse, including forced labor and forced birth control, continues.
China immediately responded to the EU move on Monday by imposing sanctions on ten European individuals and four institutions that they believe are harming China’s interests and ‘maliciously spreading lies and disinformation’. The individuals were forbidden to visit the mainland of China, Hong Kong and Macao and were forbidden to do financial business with Chinese institutions.
Xinjiang has experienced violence against the government, but Beijing claims that the massive repression of security has brought peace in recent years.
China and Russia were rivals for the leadership of the communist world during the Cold War, but in recent years have built a strong relationship based on opposition to the US-led liberal order, as well as cooperation in military affairs, technology and trade in natural resources. The ruling Communist Party of China allows no political opposition and holds civil society tightly, while Russian leader Vladimir Putin has cracked down hard on citizens demanding a more open system.
Russia has been under Western sanctions for years for its seizure of Crimea, support for separatists in Ukraine and attacks on government critics.
The new EU sanctions system imposed on China is similar to the Magnitsky Act – Obama-era legislation that empowers the US government to punish those he considers human rights violators, freeze their assets and put them in the To ban United States.
China and the US held controversial talks last week, while relations between the US and Russia took a serious hit on Thursday after Putin Biden’s description of him as a murderer bounced back.
Australian Foreign Secretary Marise Payne and her New Zealand counterpart Nanaia Mahuta also said in a joint statement on Tuesday that they had concerns about the rights situation in western China and had joined forces for a independent investigation.
“Today, we emphasize the importance of transparency and accountability, and reiterate our call on China to provide meaningful and unrestricted access to Xinjiang to United Nations experts and other independent observers,” the statement said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that a unanimous response sends a strong signal to those who violate or abuse international human rights, and we will take further steps in cooperation with equal partners. ‘
China recently executed two Canadian citizens, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, in apparent retaliation for the detention of Canada in December 2019 by Meng Wanzhou, a chief executive of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. No rulings have been announced. The US wants Meng to be extradited to face charges of fraud, which angered China, which sees her detention as politically motivated.
According to Canadian broadcaster CTV, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denies any connection between his country’s support for the sanctions action and the plight of Spavor and Kovrig. China accused Spavor and Kovrig of collaborating to steal Chinese state secrets, but offered no details and banned the media and diplomats from the proceedings.
“We have long lamented the arbitrary detention of the two Michaels (Kovrig and Spavor) and we are working with our allies around the world on this issue,” Trudeau told CTV. “On an unrelated issue, we and our international allies are very concerned about the situation facing Muslim minorities in Western China.”