Beijing slams Ottawa's baseless claims

The Foreign Ministry on Monday pushed back against Canada's groundless accusations and attacks on China in its newly launched "Indo-Pacific Strategy", urging Ottawa to follow through on its commitment to developing bilateral ties with concrete actions.

Speaking at a news briefing in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the so-called strategy, particularly the content related to China, is full of ideological bias and hypes up the so-called "China threat".

"China has already lodged solemn demarches to the Canadian side," he said.

In the 26-page document, Canada described China as "increasingly disruptive" and vowed more efforts to deal with China including boosting its military presence in the region.

Zhao said: "The international community is well aware of who is defending world peace and promoting common development while who is fanning up the Cold War mentality and hyping up bloc confrontations."

China has always been a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of international order, he said, adding that China never seeks hegemonism or expansion no matter what stage it develops into.

Noting that noninterference is a principle in state-to-state interactions, Zhao said affairs related to Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong are purely China's internal affairs and brook no foreign interference or irresponsible remarks.

"China is firm in defending its national sovereignty, security and development interests," he said.

According to the spokesman, the Canadian side has, on many occasions, expressed that it attaches importance to relations with China and is ready to improve and develop its relations with China with a forward-looking attitude.

"Then the Canadian side should match its words with actions, show sincerity and goodwill, uphold the spirit of seeking common ground while shelving differences, and practice a rational and practical policy toward China," Zhao added.

mojingxi@chinadaily.com.cn