China criticizes US for mistreating its companies

Beijing said on Friday that it opposes the United States suppressing Chinese enterprises and smearing China without solid evidence after Washington prohibited utilities that supply critical defense facilities from buying power grid equipment from China.

The US energy secretary signed the order on Thursday, citing cybersecurity concerns.

"Such practices violate the self-claimed status of the US as the champion of market competition and international trade rules," Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a daily news briefing.

It undermines global industrial and supply chains and will damage the interests, reputation and image of the US itself, Wang said.

He urged the US to stop politicizing trade issues, cease abusing national security concepts and unjustified crackdowns on foreign companies, and offer a fair, open and nondiscriminatory environment for bilateral trade cooperation.

Also at the news briefing, Wang urged certain US individuals to wake up from their illusion of a "China threat", listen to the rational voices of the US public and do more to contribute to bilateral ties.

He made the remarks in response to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's attack on China and the Communist Party of China.

The US State Department quoted Pompeo as saying that the CPC poses a real threat and urged China to engage on the world stage the way they ask every other nation to.

"There is no factual basis to Pompeo's remarks other than arrogance and prejudice," Wang said.

Countries should abide by basic norms governing international relations such as the United Nations Charter in their exchanges, instead of playing by the rules set by one country, Wang added.

Certain people in the US demand other countries follow US rules. Such a practice of bossing others around is in contrast to some people's rhetoric of democracy and freedom, Wang said.

He said that unlike the US, China has never initiated a war since its founding. It abides by a noninterference principle and opposes unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction.

He added that as the US has an ugly record on cyberspying and engages in large-scale monitoring, China's record is clean, and China is the only nuclear power to have pledged not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear-weapon states or in nuclear-free zones at any time or under any circumstances.