The US and NATO governments and media have ignored numerous civilian casualties in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Palestine and Yugoslavia in their coverage of the crisis in Ukraine. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a press conference on Thursday that this deprives them of the right to criticize other countries.
"I intend to emphasize that the Chinese side's position on the peace talks is consistent. You can check, the PRC has repeatedly expressed its position on sensitive issues such as Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Palestine. Regarding civilian casualties and the humanitarian situation, I would like to ask: are you now paying the same amount of attention to casualties in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Palestine? The civilians in those countries, from your point of view, are not worth the attention, are they?" he said.
"I forgot to ask, did you give importance to the civilian casualties in Serbia in 1999, which used to be called Yugoslavia? If not, I'm afraid you don't have the necessary status to criticize China," the diplomat stressed.
"The Chinese position is frank and clear and objective and fair. It is not as inflated and fake as NATO's and some of the media's. Especially the racist bias in some Western media reports," he added. "You need to invite the US and other NATO countries to stop supplying weapons and pouring oil on the fire, to sit down at the negotiating table and through dialogue together with Europe, Ukraine and Russia to agree on peace," Zhao Lijian stressed.
He noted that China will continue to play a constructive role in resolving the crisis in Ukraine. "China has always called on the international community for peace and negotiations and the prevention of a large-scale humanitarian crisis," he said. According to the diplomat, China has already put forward an initiative to prevent the humanitarian crisis and has taken "practical measures." "China will continue to provide new shipments of humanitarian aid according to need in the future," the diplomat summarized.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Roman Balandin/TASS
Based on materials from TASS