China voices opposition to US defense spending bill

CHINA expressed strong dissatisfaction and opposition on Wednesday to a US defense spending bill which includes propositions aimed at China, and urged the US not to disrupt the stable development of bilateral ties.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang made the remarks at a news briefing when asked for comments about a draft bill of the US National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019.

According to reports, the US Congress has reached a compromise on the aforementioned draft bill that includes several propositions aimed at China, like strengthening defense ties with Taiwan and studying China’s “coercive activities” in the South China Sea.

Geng said that China is strongly dissatisfied and firmly opposes those China-related provisions, and has lodged solemn representations with the US side several times. If the relevant content is put into law, it will severely damage the mutual trust between China and the United States, and jeopardize exchanges and cooperation in relevant fields, as well as the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, Geng said.

“We urge the US side to discard the outdated cold-war and zerosum mentality, immediately delete the relevant negative content and uphold rather than disrupt the steady development of the relations between the two countries,” Geng said.

In another development, China and the US will jointly host the 2018 Asia Pacific Military Health Exchange (APMHE) in China’s city of Xi’an from September 17 to 21.

At a press conference in Beijing yesterday, Ren Guoqiang, spokesperson of the Ministry of National Defense, said that about 600 people will participate, including military representatives from 28 countries and representatives from the United Nations, the International Red Cross and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Center of Military Medicine.

This will be the first time that China and the US co-host the APMHE in China, Ren said.