China protests against change to US State Department fact sheet: ‘halt the smear campaign’
Another State Department website change shows Trump ‘seems indifferent’ to the importance of the Taiwan issue to Beijing, academic says
Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said the changes – which focused on the US trade deficit and competitive relations between the two countries – were “distorting the truth, denigrating China’s foreign policy and advocating so-called strategic competition”.
“China strongly disapproves and firmly opposes it,” he said, urging the US to “stop misleading the American people and the international community, and halt the smear campaign and pressure against China”.
The US State Department released its revised China fact sheet on February 13. It states that the US views its relationship with China through the frame of strategic competition. It also includes a new phrase: “in response to the direct challenges that China presents to US interests”.
“The United States works to deter China’s aggression, combat China’s unfair trade policies, counter China’s malicious cyber activity, end China’s global trafficking of fentanyl precursors, mitigate China’s manipulation of international organisations and promote accountability for China’s violations of human rights within China and around the globe,” the fact sheet says.
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It also includes data about the US trade deficit with China, challenges for American businesses operating in China – saying US firms cite arbitrary legal enforcement – and alleged unfair trade practices such as “using forced labour and massive state subsidies”.