Daily Times

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that Beijing will keep playing a positive and constructive role in facilitating peace and economic development in Afghanistan.

Addressing a press conference on the sidelines of the annual national legislative session, Wang said that he hoped Afghanistan can return to normality after the signing of the peace deal between the US and the Taliban in February. He said the US side should withdraw its military responsibly to avoid damaging the interests of Afghanistan and neighboring countries.

Infrastructure and public well-being projects under the Belt and Road Initiative have played an important role for partner countries during the Covid-19 pandemic, Wang said, adding that looking into the future, the joint building of the Belt and Road will be conducted on a more solid foundation, with more vitality and broader prospects after the pandemic. According to him, China-Europe freight trains have transported 8,000 tons of materials used to help combat the virus from January to April.

A political virus that is trying to attack and slander China regardless of basic facts is spreading in the United States, Wang said, adding that the US has made up so many lies and brewed so many plots about China that they can be compiled into a collection. Given that the Covid-19 has taken so many lives around the world, Wang urged China and the US to learn from each other and share their experience on combating the virus to help the anti-epidemic efforts in both countries.

He said the most important lesson that can be learned from the Covid-19 pandemic is that people’s lives and health are closely connected with each other’s and that all countries are in the same global village. He said all countries should transcend their differences and work together to overcome the novel coronavirus, instead of political manipulation, seeking benefits at others’ expense or ignoring science.

Wang said globalization, multilateralism and global governance should be championed and optimized in the post Covid-19 pandemic world. He said the development of human history is punctuated with triumph against major disasters. “So long as we make the right choices and follow the right path, we will embrace a bright future,” he said. “We need to mitigate the unbalanced regional developmental issues and inequality created by globalization,” he said. “But the issue of globalization needs to be solved with globalization,” he added.

A joint fight by China and Russia against the novel coronavirus will give a strong boost to bilateral relations, Wang said. China is willing to work with Russia to turn the crisis into an opportunity to maintain the stability of cooperation in energy and other traditional fields, and accelerate cooperation in new areas, such as e-commerce and medicine, to make new engines of economic growth after the Covid-19 pandemic, he added.

China has been offering assistance to other countries to fight COVID-19 with the sole intention of trying to save as many lives as possible, Wang said. China never seeks any geopolitical economic interests through such assistance, neither does it attach any political strings to the assistance, he added.

Wang Yi said the national security legislation for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region will not influence the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors. He said the draft decision to establish and improve a legal framework and enforcement mechanism for safeguarding national security in Hong Kong, which has been submitted to the third session of the 13th National People’s Congress for deliberation, aims to punish the small minority of people who jeopardize the national security. It will not influence the high autonomy of the SAR, the rights and freedom of Hong Kong residents as well as the legitimate rights and interests of the foreign investors, he added.

China, Japan and the Republic of Korea should continue their cooperation to contain the Covid-19 outbreak and work together to resume their business operations and ensure stable supply chains, Wang said. The three countries have been working closely to control the outbreak, and their people have been looking out for and helping each other to overcome Covid-19, which has set an example for the world in fighting the pandemic, he said.

China will be firmer in its determination and take much stronger measures to safeguard its national sovereignty, security and development interests and resolutely prevent the external forces from interfering in its domestic affairs, Wang said. Speaking of the tasks of Chinese diplomacy in 2020, he said the country will also strive to maintain the stability of the global industrial chains, promote trade liberalization and facilitation to counter the downward pressure on the world economy.

China will never seek international hegemony, and will always stand by the common interests of all countries, Wang said. China has always adhered to an independent foreign policy of peace, and will champion world peace and common development, Wang said, rebuking comments that China is adopting a “wolf-warrior” approach of diplomacy.

In response to a question about Taiwan, Wang said One-China principle is the common consensus of the international community, and also constitutes the political foundation of bilateral ties between China and the countries having diplomatic relations with it. China firmly opposes countries taking anti-epidemic measures as an excuse to develop official relations with the island, which is an inalienable part of China, he said, and it opposes the violation of “One-China” principle to seek international space for Taiwan.