China urges US to establish right way for two major countries to get along: FM spokesperson

BEIJING - The US side should stop smearing and attacking China, work with China in the same direction, and establish the right way for two major countries to get along, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Friday.

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a regular press briefing in response to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's comments to the press after a NATO foreign ministers' meeting Wednesday.

Zhao said that the US side's comments are not based on facts and reflect the entrenched Cold War mentality and ideological bias.

It is the United States who is the origin and expert of coercive diplomacy. From the threat of force to political isolation, from economic sanction to technological blockade, the United States would stop at nothing to achieve its end, and there are plenty of textbook cases of US coercive diplomacy, Zhao said.

The United States has a long record of propagating disinformation. From Operation Mockingbird which bribed and manipulated news media for propaganda purposes in the Cold War era, to a vial with white powder and a staged video of the "White Helmets" cited as evidence to wage wars in Iraq and Syria earlier this century, and then to the lie of the century made up to smear China's Xinjiang policy, the world has seen how the United States concocted false evidence and spread disinformation, he said.

It is the United States that resorts to wanton use of force to stir up trouble across the world. US military expenditure ranks first in the world and is larger than the next nine countries combined, said Zhao, adding that the United States was not at war for only 16 years throughout its nearly 250 years of history.

"It runs more than 800 overseas military bases. Its military operations in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya have led to innumerable humanitarian tragedies. US military aircraft and warships constantly flex muscles around the globe. It is all too clear who has been undermining international and regional security and stability," the spokesperson said.

Noting China never engages in coercion or disinformation, he reiterated that China is committed to an independent foreign policy of peace.

"The United States needs to stop smearing and attacking China. A sound and stable China-US relationship requires efforts from both sides. We hope the United States will work with us in the same direction to deliver on the important common understandings reached by our heads of state and establish the right way for our two major countries to get along," Zhao added.