Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry Photo: VCG

Is the US really upholding the spirit of the rule of law, Chinese Foreign Ministry asked Friday, after a series of events that show how American law-enforcement agencies could be easily manipulated by political agenda, and take on Chinese cases just to complete a quota.

Those reportedly arrested by the US and allegedly linked to China's international anti-corruption campaign Operation Fox Hunt, are "not law-enforcement personnel from China," and the accusation was meant to smear China, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

Wang Wenbin made the remarks during a routine press conference, when asked to discuss the recent US decision to arrest the eight, who the US Department of Justice charged with "involvement in China's Fox Hunt anti-graft campaign," smearing it as an operation that targets dissidents and critics of Chinese leaders rather than economic crime suspects.

It is a consensus reached by the international community to cooperate in combating transnational crimes, including corruption, and to refuse to provide "safe havens" for criminal suspects and illegal funds, Wang said.

The US is the most popular destination for Chinese corruption and economic crime suspects. And in recent years, the US has been taking a negative attitude to treat China's legitimate cooperation requests on repatriating such fugitives. Some law enforcement officials have also been brazenly providing support and asylum to Chinese fugitives, and repeatedly preventing fugitives from returning to China, Wang pointed out.

What the US has done defies justice and the rule of law, and violates the spirit of the UN Convention against Corruption and the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, as well as against the public commitments made by the US on international occasions, said the spokesperson.

Also during the Friday conference, Wang slammed the Justice department's action plan against China, which a US university report just exposed, saying it is "pure political manipulation."

The US Department of Justice launched an "action plan" in the fall of 2018 which requires its 94 regional judiciaries to file at least one or two cases against China each year, according to the report released by Johns Hopkins University. US justice authorities have launched more than 2,000 investigations resulting from the cases brought forward under the plan.

It is pure political manipulation and another example of McCarthyism's resurgence in the US, Wang said, in response to the Global Times reporter's question about the "action plan."

The DOJ does not base [its judgments] on facts, but promotes presumption of guilt with a politically-oriented mindset, Wang said. "What is the US' so-called spirit of the rule of law?" he asked, pointing out that it is not surprising that so many charges such as "espionage" and "stealing secrets" have been imposed on Chinese individuals and institutions, when the filing of anti-China cases has become a target or task that must be completed.

"We urge the US to abandon its Cold War mentality and ideological bias, stop playing political tricks, stop disrupting normal Sino-US exchanges and cooperation in the fields including science, technology and culture," Wang said. 

The US must also stop the abuse of judicial power in harassing and suppressing Chinese students and researchers in the US to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens there, said Wang.

Global Times