New Delhi: Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying sparred with a Bloomberg reporter and asked for the journalist’s nationality during a press conference in Beijing Wednesday.
According to a transcript on the foreign ministry’s official website, the journalist, whose identity has not been made public, alleged Hua contradicted herself while answering questions on human rights concerns against Muslim minorities in China’s Xinjiang region.
This is how the conversation played out, according to the transcript:
“There’s an apparent contradiction between your comments on the human rights situation in specific countries, such as Canada, Australia, other countries and the Chinese government’s repeated statements that no other countries have the right to comment or interfere in Chinese domestic affairs. How do you explain that contradiction?” asked the journalist.
“May I know your nationality?” replied the spokesperson.
“I am Australian,” the journalist said.
“That explains why you are asking this question,” said Hua.
Also read: Scott Morrison demands apology from China over ‘falsified’ tweet on Australian army
China-Australia tensions
The spokesperson argued that China’s position is not contradictory and the accusations levelled against Beijing by Australia and other US allies are “based on nothing but lies”.
“As an Australian, you know very well whether there were policies to slaughter and assimilate the aboriginal people in the history of your country,” said Hua, in reference to the widespread massacres and jailing of indigenous Australians, such as Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, that enabled British settlement in the country from the late 18th century onwards.
“You also know whether the more recent crimes conducted by some Australian soldiers in Afghanistan are a fact,” added the Chinese spokesperson.
Last November, a report claimed that Australian special forces were involved in the murder of 39 Afghan civilians and the unlawful killings were deliberately covered up. It prompted an apology from Australia’s prime minister and the top military commander.
The spokesperson ended her statement by saying, “Why can’t we point out Australia’s mistake when the country shies away from its own problems, and groundlessly accuses China on the basis of lies, rumors and disinformation…(sic)?”
On Tuesday, Australia and New Zealand welcomed sanctions announced by the UK, the US, the EU and Canada against China due to concerns about human rights abuses in Xinjiang, but didn’t impose any sanctions of their own.
The Chinese embassy subsequently accused Canberra of “despicable smearing”.
During the press conference, Hua spoke on the recent “hate crimes against Asian Americans” in Atlanta and called on the US to check racial discrimination within its own borders.
“The first thing they [US] should do is to make sure that people like George Floyd breathe freely, that Asian-Americans are free from the nightmare of discrimination and hate crimes and will no longer live in fear, that the tragedy of more than half a million Americans dying from this epidemic is put to an end…,” said Hua.
She also said that human rights should not be used as a “tool” to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries.
Also read: Australia and China’s deepening dispute, & how they are caught in a ‘Thucydides trap’
And when did that imaginative apology from Australian PM come ?… Galat news ki sabse badi dukaan “theprint”???
Before any nation might effectively challenge China — a mighty military country with almost 1.5 billion consumers — on any major issue (though especially human rights), that nation first must have a significant trade-export/import bargaining chip.
I can imagine that a large enough number of world nations securely allied, however, likely could combine their resources and go without the usual China trade/investment connection they’d prefer to sever if possible, instead trading necessary goods and services between themselves (and perhaps other, non-allied countries not beholden to China).
Yet, maybe such an alliance has already been proposed and discussed but rejected (behind closed doors) due to Chinese government strategists knowing how to ‘divide and conquer’ potential alliance nations by using door-wedge economic/political leverage custom-made for each nation.
Every nation shortsightedly placing its own big businesses’ bottom-line interests first and foremost may always be its, and therefore collectively our, Achilles Heel to be exploited by huge-market nations like China.
And that is a classic response from the Chinese spokesman. Shut the mouth of all such journalists, biased critics all over the world. India Must learn to answer queries like Ms. Hua, Absolutely effective even if you disagree about it in modern era.