Chinese Foreign Ministry slammed the US, which blamed China for allegedly "not doing enough" to avert food crisis in East Africa on Tuesday, and it urged the US to seriously reflect on its disgraceful role in the global food crisis, and not make groundless accusations and always smear against China.

The remarks came after US aid chief Samantha Power on Monday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies put blame on China for alleged trade restrictions on fertilizer and "hoarding" of grain, according to an report by AFP.

China is a developing country and has no official development assistance obligations. However, as the second largest contributor to the UN and a major responsible country, China has been actively participating in international development cooperation, providing a great deal of development resources to UN development agencies including the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), making positive contributions to ensuring global food security, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday.

Zhao said that the Global Development Initiative (GDI) proposed by China takes food security as one of the eight key areas of cooperation.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, China has actively responded to efforts by the UN and other international organizations to provide emergency food assistance to needy countries. China is the developing country offering the most financial assistance, taking part in the most projects under the South-South Cooperation framework of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, Zhao said.

"The international community knows exactly who is responsible for causing the global food crisis," Zhao said.

"I have noticed that the US has previously acknowledged that economic sanctions against Russia have cost many countries dearly and led to food shortages in reality. The US has not returned the hard-earned money of the Afghan people which it has embezzled. How many Afghan people will face the threat of starvation? We hope that the US can seriously reflect on its disgraceful role in the global food crisis, and not make groundless accusations against and always smear China", Zhao said.

Global Times