China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin. Photo: VCG

 The remarks of certain people in the UK deliberately distorted facts, smeared China's policies and were full of cold-war mentality with the aim to provoke ideological confrontation, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on MI6 chief Richard Moore's China-related remarks. 

China firmly purses a defensive national defense policy and develops necessary military capabilities purely for safeguarding national security, Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said at Wednesday's media briefing. 

The accusation that China has conducted large scale espionage activities is completely untrue, Wang said. 

Moore, the new chief of British secret intelligence service MI6, claimed that China's own intelligence services are "highly capable" and China "continues to conduct large scale espionage operations against the US and its allies," according to CNBC. 

Wang stressed that the affairs of Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan are purely China's internal affairs, and no country has the right to interfere with them under any pretext.

The goal of China's development is to enable the Chinese people to live a better life, not to target or replace anyone, Wang said, urging relevant people to abandon the zero-sum mentality of the cold war and view China in an objective and rational way, instead of unnecessarily setting up imaginary enemies. 

Global Times