BEIJING (AP) – China’s and Russia’s foreign ministers on Tuesday said their countries had close ties amid intense criticism and new Western sanctions against them on human rights.
Wang Yi and Sergei Lavrov rejected outside their authoritarian political systems and said they were working to continue global progress on issues from climate change to the coronavirus pandemic.
At their initial meeting in the southern Chinese city of Nanning on Monday, Wang and Lavrov accused the United States of interfering in foreign affairs and called on it to join the Iranian nuclear deal, which President Joe Biden’s new administration has cautiously approached. . Russia and China both maintain close ties with Tehran, with whom they share a firm approach to any political opposition.
The two officials continued the great rhetoric at a press conference on Tuesday, in which Wang harshly criticized the coordinated sanctions brought by the European Union, Great Britain, Canada and the United States against Chinese officials in connection with human rights violations in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang. .
“Countries should unite to oppose all forms of unilateral sanctions,” Wang said. “These measures will not be taken by the international community.”
Lavrov said the sanctions brought Russia and China closer, and accused the West of “imposing its own rules on everyone else, who I believe should be at the heart of the world order.”
“If Europe has broken off these relations, simply by destroying all the mechanisms created over many years … then probably objectively, this is leading to the fact that our relations with China are developing faster than what is left of relations. with European countries, Lavrov said.
In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the two ministers said that no country should seek to impose its form of democracy on any other.
“Intervention in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation under the pretext of ‘advancing democracy’ is unacceptable,” the statement said.
China says members of Uighur and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang have voluntarily participated in vocational training and radicalization, denying allegations that more than 1 million have been imprisoned in prison-like re-education camps, where they are forced to reject native culture and promise loyalty to the ruling Communist Party and its leader Xi Jinping. The media, foreign governments and activist groups say abuses, including forced labor and forced birth control, are ongoing.
China responded immediately on Monday to the EU’s approach by imposing sanctions on 10 Europeans and four institutions, which it said had affected China’s interests and “spread malicious lies and misinformation.” People were forbidden to visit mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao and were forbidden to engage in financial relations with Chinese institutions.
Xinjiang has experienced anti-government violence, but Beijing claims that its massive security crackdown has brought peace in recent years.
China and Russia were rivals to lead the communist world during the Cold War, but have built a strong relationship in recent years based on opposition to the liberal order led by the US, as well as cooperation in military affairs, technology and trade in natural resources. The Chinese-led Communist Party does not allow any political opposition and holds tight control over civil society, while Russian leader Vladimir Putin has strongly repressed citizens calling for a more open system.
Russia has been under Western sanctions for years for confiscating Crimea, supporting separatists in Ukraine and attacking government critics.
The new EU sanctions system imposed on China is similar to the Magnitsky Act – Obama-era legislation that authorizes the US government to punish those it sees as human rights violators, freeze their assets and ban them from entering the United States.
China and the United States had controversial talks last week, while US-Russia relations took a heavy toll on Thursday after Putin pulled back on Biden’s description of him as a killer.
Also Tuesday, Australian Foreign Secretary Marise Payne and her New Zealand counterpart Nanaia Mahuta said in a joint statement that they shared concerns about the rights situation in western China and joined calls for an independent inquiry.
“Today we emphasize the importance of transparency and accountability and reiterate our call on China to grant significant and unrestricted access to Xinjiang for United Nations experts and other independent observers,” the statement said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that a united response “sends a strong signal to those who violate or abuse international human rights and that we will take further action in coordination with such partners”.
China recently tried two Canadian citizens, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, in apparent repression for the detention in Canada in December 2019 of Meng Wanzhou, an executive of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. No verdicts have been announced. The US wants Meng extradited to face charges of fraud, angered China, which considers her detention politically motivated.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has denied any connection between his country’s support for sanctions and the fate of Spavor and Kovrig, according to Canadian broadcaster CTV. China accused Spavor and Kovrig of working together to steal Chinese state secrets, but did not provide details and banned the media and diplomats from the proceedings.
“We have long deplored the arbitrary detention of the two Michaels (Kovrig and Spavor) and have been working with our allies around the world on this issue,” Trudeau told CTV. “On an unrelated issue, together with our international allies, we are very concerned about the plight of Muslim minorities in western China.”