The international order pursued by the US based on "American rules" is the "most serious long-term challenge" to the world, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Monday in response to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's China policy speech. Zhao said that the US is the biggest destroyer of the international order.

Zhao said that Blinken's speech was full of lies and distortions and said it is actually the US that is the main threat to the international order.

In a speech on May 26, Blinken devoted much of his speech to the Biden administration's policy toward China, singling out China as the "most serious long-term challenge" to world order.

The US has no reverence for the international order based on the UN Charter and international law, Zhao said, adding that the US has not fought a war for only 16 years in the more than 200 years since the founding of the country.

Citing works and studies by writers and universities from the US, the spokesman said that since the end of World War II, the US has tried to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments and interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries.

Since 2001 alone, wars and military operations waged by the US in the name of fighting terrorism have claimed the lives of more than 800,000 people and made more than 20 million people refugees.

Besides, the US, with its insistence on "exceptionalism," has made a habit of breaking agreements and withdrawing from international bodies, which makes it undoubtedly the biggest destroyer of the international order, Zhao added.

In the eyes of the US, international rules have always been subordinate to its own self-interest and hegemony. When the two are consistent, the US takes the rules as the basis for its actions, and when they are inconsistent, it treats the rules as nothing.

The US has put its domestic law above international law and international rules and has arbitrarily imposed illegal unilateral sanctions. It can be said that the US is the epitome of "coercive diplomacy," Zhao noted.

In the more than 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, China has never initiated a war of its own accord and has adhered to resolving disputes through dialogue and negotiation, Zhao said, adding that China will take concrete actions to actively participate in global governance, safeguard the international order and contribute to world prosperity and the common progress of mankind.

Global Times