BEIJING (AP) – The chancellors of China and Russia affirmed their countries’ close ties at a meeting on Tuesday, amid intense criticism and new Western sanctions against them on human rights.
Wang Yi and Sergei Lavrov rejected outside criticism of their authoritarian political systems and said they were working to promote global progress on issues ranging from climate change to the coronavirus pandemic.
At their initial meeting in the southern city of Nanning on Monday, Wang and Lavrov accused the United States of interfering in the affairs of other countries and urged them to rejoin the nuclear deal with Iran, something the new President Joe Biden’s government approached it with caution. Russia and China have close relations with Tehran, with which they share a firm approach against any political opposition.
The two officials continued the rhetoric at a news conference on Tuesday, where Wang harshly criticized the coordinated sanctions brought by the European Union, Britain, Canada and the United States against Chinese officials for human rights abuses in the far Xinjiang region. western China.
“Countries must come together to oppose all forms of unilateral sanctions,” said Wang. “These measures will not be adopted by the international community.”
Lavrov said the sanctions were bringing Russia and China closer and accused the West of “imposing its own rules on everyone else, which they believe must support the world order”.
“If Europe broke these relations, simply by destroying all the mechanisms that were created many years ago … then, probably, objectively, this leads to the fact that our relations with China are developing faster than what remains of the relations with European countries, ”Lavrov said.
In a joint statement released after the meeting, the two ministers said that no country should try to impose its form of democracy on another.
“Interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation under the excuse of ‘promoting democracy’ is unacceptable,” said the statement.
China says members of Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang have voluntarily participated in vocational training and de-radicalization courses, denying allegations that more than 1 million have been arrested in prison-like re-education camps, where they are forced to reject their native culture and swear allegiance to the Communist Party and its leader Xi Jinping. The media, foreign governments and activist groups say that abuses, including forced labor and forced birth control, are ongoing.
China responded immediately on Monday to the EU measure, imposing sanctions on 10 European individuals and four institutions that, she said, harmed China’s interests and “spread lies and misinformation maliciously”. The individuals were prevented from visiting mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau and banned from conducting financial negotiations with Chinese institutions.
Xinjiang has suffered anti-government violence, but Beijing says its massive crackdown on security has brought peace in recent years.
China and Russia were rivals for the leadership of the communist world during the Cold War, but have built a strong relationship in recent years based on opposition to the US-led liberal order, as well as cooperation in military affairs, technology and trade in natural resources. The Communist Party of China does not allow political opposition and maintains strict control over civil society, while Russian leader Vladimir Putin has strongly repressed citizens who call for a more open system.
Russia has been under Western sanctions for years because of the Crimean takeover, 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 punish those it considers human rights violators, to freeze their assets and to forbid them from entering the United States.
China and the US held controversial talks last week, while US-Russia relations were hit hard on Thursday after Putin responded to Biden’s description of him as a murderer.
Also on Tuesday, Australian Chancellor 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 adhered to requests 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.
United States 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 further action in coordination with like-minded partners.”
China recently put two Canadian citizens on trial, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig on trial, in apparent retaliation for the detention in December 2019 of Meng Wanzhou, an executive at Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. No verdict has been announced. The United States wants Meng to be extradited to face charges of fraud, angering China, which sees his detention as 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 offered no details and banned the media and diplomats from participating in the process.
“We have long regretted the arbitrary detention of the two Michaels (Kovrig and Spavor) and we have been working with our allies around the world on this issue,” Trudeau told CTV. “On an unrelated issue, we, along with our international allies, are very concerned about the situation that Muslim minorities face in western China.”