BEIJING (AP) – China and Russia’s foreign ministers affirmed their countries’ close ties at a meeting on Tuesday amid intense criticism and new Western human rights sanctions against them.
Wang Yi and Sergei Lavrov rejected outside the franchise of their authoritarian political systems and said they were working to advance globally 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 urged them to rejoin the agreement. Iran’s nuclear power, which the new administration of President Joe Biden has approached with caution. Russia and China maintain a close relationship with Tehran, with which they share a firm focus against any political opposition.
The two officials continued this rhetoric on Tuesday at a press conference, where Wang harshly criticized coordinated sanctions by the European Union, Britain, Canada and the United States against Chinese officials for human rights abuses in the far west of the country. Xinjiang region.
“Countries should stay united 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 together and accused the West of “imposing its own rules on everyone, who they believe should ground the world order.”
“If Europe broke off these relations, simply by destroying all the mechanisms created over many years … probably, objectively, this will lead to our relations with China developing more quickly than the rest of the relations with European countries, Lavrov said.
In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the two ministers said no country should try to impose its form of democracy on any other.
“Interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation under the pretext of ‘advancing democracy’ is unacceptable,” the statement said.
China says members of Uighur groups and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang have voluntarily participated in job training and radicalization courses, denying charges that more than a million have been locked up in prison-like re-education camps where they are forced to reject their indigenous culture and pledge allegiance to the ruling Communist Party and its leader Xi Jinping. Media, foreign governments and activist groups claim that abuses, including forced labor and forced birth control, continue.
China on Monday responded immediately to the EU measure by imposing sanctions on ten Europeans and four institutions, which it said had harmed China’s interests and “maliciously spread lies and misinformation.” People were banned from visiting mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao and were banned from participating in financial relations with Chinese institutions.
Xinjiang had experienced anti-government violence, but Beijing claims its massive security crackdown has brought peace in recent years.
China and Russia were rivals for the leadership of the communist world during the Cold War, but have established a strong relationship in recent years based on opposition to the liberal order led by the United States, as well as cooperation in military matters. , technology and trade in natural resources. The ruling Communist Party of China allows no political opposition and maintains a strong hold on civil society, while Russian leader Vladimir Putin has strongly repressed citizens calling for a more open system.
Russia has been subject to Western sanctions for years for the capture 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 authorizes the U.S. government to sanction those it considers human rights violators, freeze their assets and ban them from entry into the United States.
China and the United States held controversial talks last week, while U.S.-Russia relations received a heavy blow on Thursday after Putin fired at Biden’s description of him as an assassin.
Also Tuesday, Australian Foreign Minister 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 requests for an independent investigation.
“Today we underline the importance of transparency and accountability and reiterate our call on China to grant meaningful and unrestricted access to Xinjiang for United Nations experts and other independent observers,” the statement said.
U.S. 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 we will take additional action in coordination with like-minded partners.”
Recently, China tried two Canadian citizens, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, in apparent retaliation for Canada’s December 2019 arrest of Meng Wanzhou, an executive of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. No verdict has been announced. The United States wants Meng extradited to face charges of fraud, infuriating China, which believes his arrest has political motivation.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denied any connection between his country’s support for sanctions action and the fate of Spavor and Kovrig, according to Canadian broadcaster CTV. China has accused Spavor and Kovrig of working together to steal Chinese state secrets, but has offered no details and banned the media and diplomats from the procedure.
“We have long regretted the arbitrary arrest of the two Michaels (Kovrig and Spavor) and are 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.”