'Enough is enough': China attacks US at Security Council
UNITED NATIONS, United States — China on Thursday lashed out at the United States at a high-level UN meeting over its criticism on the coronavirus, with its envoy declaring, "Enough is enough!"
Two days after President Donald Trump used his annual address to the General Assembly to attack China, its ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, strongly criticized the US global role.
"I must say, enough is enough! You have created enough troubles for the world already," he told a Security Council meeting on global governance attended through videoconference by several heads of state.
"The US has nearly seven million confirmed cases and over 200,000 deaths by now. With the most advanced medical technologies and system in the world, why has the US turned out to have the most confirmed cases and fatalities?" he asked.
"If someone should be held accountable, it should be a few US politicians themselves."
Using a phrase often told by US leaders to China, Zhang said, "The US should understand that a major power should behave like a major power."
The United States, he said, "is completely isolated."
"It's time to wake up," he said in remarks enthusiastically backed by his Russian counterpart.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, voiced anger at the tone of the session, which was presided over by Niger's president, Issoufou Mahamadou.
"You know, shame on each of you. I am astonished and I am disgusted by the content of today's discussion," Craft said.
"I am actually really quite ashamed of this Council -–members of the Council who took this opportunity to focus on political grudges rather than the critical issue at hand. My goodness."
Trump in his speech Tuesday had demanded action against China for spreading the "plague" of Covid-19.
China initially suppressed news of the respiratory disease when it emerged last year in Wuhan and initial advice played down the risks of transmission.
China's communist leaders have more recently tried to transform the narrative into one of success in stopping the virus.
Trump's response to the pandemic has emerged as a major political issue as he seeks a new term in November 3 elections.
The US decision to disinvite China from upcoming maritime exercises in the Pacific is "non-constructive," China's Foreign Affairs Minister Wang Yi says.
"We find that a very non-constructive move," Wang says at a press conference with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo after the two met in Washington.
"It's also a decision taken lightly and is unhelpful to mutual understanding between China and the US." — Agence France-Presse
The United States accuses China of orchestrating a "concerted" campaign of dangerous and provocative air force maneuvers against US military planes in international airspace, warning such moves could spark inadvertent conflict between the two powers.
The Pentagon says aggressive tactics by Chinese aircraft threatened US planes flying over the East and South China Sea regions, tallying more than 180 such incidents since fall 2021 -- "more in the past two years than in the decade before that," said Ely Ratner, assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs. — AFP
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken calls on China, a partner of Iran, to use its influence to push for calm in the Middle East after Hamas militants struck Israel, provoking retaliation and fears that violence will spread.
The top US diplomat, who was visiting Saudi Arabia, had a "productive" one-hour telephone call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller says.
"Our message was that he thinks it's in our shared interest to stop the conflict from spreading." Miller tells reporters on Blinken's plane from Riyadh to Abu Dhabi. — AFP
The US Justice Department says a US Navy petty officer pleaded guilty on Tuesday to providing sensitive military information to a Chinese intelligence officer.
Wenheng Zhao, 26, and another US sailor, Jinchao Wei, were arrested in August on suspicion of spying for China.
Zhao pleaded guilty in a federal court in California to charges of conspiring with a foreign intelligence officer and accepting a bribe, the Justice Department says in a statement. — AFP
The US Justice Department says US Navy petty officer pleaded guilty on Tuesday to providing sensitive military information to a Chinese intelligence officer.
Wenheng Zhao, 26, and another US sailor, Jinchao Wei, were arrested in August on suspicion of spying for China.
Zhao pleaded guilty in a federal court in California to charges of conspiring with a foreign intelligence officer and accepting a bribe, the Justice Department says in a statement. — AFP
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer accuses Chinese firms of "fuelling" a drug addiction crisis in the United States, as he met with officials in Shanghai on the first leg of a visit to the country.
Schumer is the latest high-level American official to visit China as Washington seeks to ease tensions with Beijing.
He met Saturday with Chen Jining, the ruling Chinese Communist Party's chief official in Shanghai, according to a pool report, stressing the United States "does not want to decouple our economies". — AFP
- Latest
- Trending
