A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday that China and Pakistan had the resolve and capability to cut off the claws of terrorists who carried out attack on a van of the Confucius Institute at the University of Karachi and make them pay the due price.
“China and Pakistan have the resolve and capability to cut off the claws of the terrorists and make them pay the due price” Wang Wenbin said at a regular news briefing in response to a question about Tuesday’s terrorist attack in Karachi which killed three Chinese citizens and injured one.
He said, yesterday, I already talked about Chi-nese position on the terrorist attack in Karachi. The injured is being treated and follow up work is being handled properly, he added.
Terming terrorism as a common scourge of all mankind, he said that the Pakistani side was taking all out efforts to investigate the attack and apprehend the perpetrator. The spokesperson reiterated that China and Pakistan’s iron-clad friendship was deeply rooted in people’s hearts.
“China supports Pakistan’s national development and will continue to support its economic and social development and improvement of livelihood,” he added.
Wang Wenbin said that the Pakistani government had promised to strengthen security for Chinese personnel, projects and institutions, and would not allow any force to undermine our friendship and cooperation. “We believe Pakistan will take earnest and concrete measures to ensure the safe and smooth progress of bilateral cooperation,” he added. He once again reminded the personnel of the Chinese institutions in Pakistan to heighten their security awareness and watch out for terrorist risks.
Wang Wenbin said it is China’s consistent view that cooperation between countries and regional initiatives should be in keeping with the overriding trend and people’s aspiration and be conducive to promoting regional peace, stability and prosperity, rather than be aimed at forming exclusive cliques detrimental to mutual trust and cooperation among regional countries. The Quad grouping you men-tioned is steeped in the obsolete Cold War and zero sum mentality and reeks of military confrontation. It runs counter to the trend of the times and is doomed to be rejected.
He said in 1972, cross-party leaders of the US Senate and House of Representatives led delegations to China in April and June respectively, which marked the beginning of the history of the US Con-gress’ exchanges with China and played a positive role in promoting the normalization of China-US relations. In the past 50 years, there are always members in the US Congress who are committed to advancing China-US friendship and cooperation. China appreciates this.
In the meantime, we are also seeing that in re-cent years, some US lawmakers, out of ideological bias and selfish political interests, oppose China at every turn, try all means to clamor for containing and suppressing China, and push the Congress to review and pass multiple negative bills on China. Such moves constitute gross interference in China’s internal affairs, undermine China’s interests and dis-rupt the development of China-US relations. This is not in line with the interests of the two countries and the two peoples, nor does it meet the expectation of the world’s people.
China and the US both stand to gain from coop-eration and lose from confrontation. This is the his-torical experience from the bilateral exchanges that resumed five decades ago. We hope US lawmakers can draw wisdom from the history, keep in mind the long-term interests of the two countries and the fundamental well-being of the two peoples, enhance dialogue and communication with China to manage differences and expand cooperation, and play a con-structive role in bringing China-US relations back to the track of steady development.
Wang Wenbin said you brought about British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss’s relevant remarks. I noted that she mentioned rules. International rules should be the norms governing international relations that are based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, rather than rules defined by a certain clique or bloc.
Ms. Truss also mentioned NATO. Since the Cold War was long over, NATO, as a product of the Cold War and the world’s largest military alliance, should have made necessary adjustments in accor-dance with the changing times. However, NATO has long clung to the old security concept, engaged in bloc confrontation and become a tool for certain countries to seek hegemony. NATO claims to be a defensive organization, but in fact it is constantly creating confrontation and disturbances. NATO demands that other countries abide by the basic norms of international relations, yet has wantonly waged wars and dropped bombs in sovereign states, killing and displacing innocent civilians. NATO, a military organization in the North Atlantic, has in recent years come to the Asia-Pacific region to throw its weight around and stir up conflicts. The impact of NATO’s eastward expansion on the long-term peace and stability of Europe is worth reflecting upon. NATO has messed up Europe. Is it now trying to mess up the Asia-Pacific and even the world?
As for China’s position on the Ukraine issue, it is consistent and clear. We always make independent judgments based on the merits of each matter.
