Meddling allegations dismissed

Beijing stresses noninterference stance in response to criticism We refuse to accept any unwarranted accusations against China.”

State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi rejected on Wednesday “groundless” US accusations against China of meddling in United States elections, saying China did not and will not interfere in any country’s domestic affairs.

Wang’s remarks came after the US leader accused Beijing of undermining his party’s prospects in upcoming elections during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

“China has always followed the principle of noninterference. We refuse to accept any unwarranted accusations against China,” Wang said at the same meeting.

Wang also urged other countries to abide by the principles of the UN Charter and commit to noninterference in the internal affairs of other countries.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Thursday that the international community is well aware of which country interferes most in other countries’ internal affairs, and he asked Washington to stop the groundless accusations and slander.

During a regular media briefing in Beijing, Geng said noninterference is China’s diplomatic tradition, and that has been universally recognized by the global community.

“We advise the US to stop wrongdoing that damages bilateral ties as well as the fundamental interests of its people,” he said.

During the Security Council meeting, the US leader said China has been attempting to interfere in the coming November elections against his administration because he is the first president to challenge China on trade.

Following the accusations, the US leader tweeted that one example was an insert sponsored by China Daily in The Des Moines Register, a newspaper in the US state of Iowa.

Geng, the spokesman, said on Thursday that it is far-fetched and sheer fiction to describe normal cooperation between Chinese and US media as the Chinese government’s attempt to meddle in US elections.

Wang Yi, state councilor and foreign minister

“According to US laws, foreign media can carry out various kinds of cooperation with US media,” he said, noting that the Chinese newspaper’s reports via paid pages of the US local newspaper fall within the scope of this type of practice.

Li Haidong, a US studies researcher at China Foreign Affairs University, said Washington’s foreign policy toward China is regressing in various areas including trade and security.

“Faced with the current tension, Washington is not thinking about how to cooperate. Instead, it is taking a confrontational and hostile policy,” Li said.

Perhaps US President Donald Trump knows he is not doing a good job — neither as president nor as a global leader. Perhaps that’s why he is grasping at straws. There are increasing signs his Republican Party will lose the House of Representatives in the midterm elections in November. Polls show that among the people very excited about voting, about 60 percent strongly disapprove of Trump’s leadership. Failing to catch any straws, Trump has turned to China. “China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election, coming up in November. Against my administration,” Trump told a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday. “They do not want me or us to win because I am the first president ever to challenge China on trade.”

The rhetoric sounds familiar, except this time China is being accused of directly interfering in the US’ internal affairs. But as always, when Trump makes accusations, evidence is missing.

US intelligence and election officials have unequivocally said they have no credible evidence that China is interfering in the midterm elections. So, it seems, Trump is trying to use the UN as a platform to garner votes in the midterms.

Non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs is a basic international principle that China has always upheld. Reiterating this stance at the UN, Foreign Minister Wang Yi rejected Trump’s “unwarranted accusations against China”, and called on other countries, the US in particular, to honor the UN Charter, by not interfering in other countries’ internal affairs.

Whether the US will heed Wang’s counsel is anybody’s guess, for when it comes to interfering or trying to interfere in other countries or their elections, Washington is a past master. The US has a long history of meddling in other countries’ elections — more than 80 times between 1946 and 2000, according to a database compiled by political scientist Dov Levin of Carnegie Mellon University. The number doesn’t include military coups and efforts made to change a regime after the victory of leaders whom the US didn’t like.

Two decades ago, Time magazine reported how US political consultants ensured Boris Yeltsin was re-elected as Russian president, much to the joy of Washington.

It is an irony, then, that US intelligence agencies are now investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections. If Trump really wants to save his political career, he should look to the economy rather than staring daggers at China — and heed the opinion of US businesses that the trade conflicts he has started are counterproductive.

Making China the scapegoat for US ills will benefit neither the US nor its president.