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Q: On December 24 Beijing time, US President Joe Biden signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, which contains a large number of negative provisions on China. What's China's comment?

A: Despite China's opposition, the US passed and signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, which contains negative content concerning China. China deplores and firmly opposes this US move, and has made serious démarches to the US.

This Act, in total disregard of facts, hypes up the "China threat" narrative, blatantly interferes in China's internal affairs, and attacks and discredits the Communist Party of China (CPC). This is a serious political provocation against China. The leadership of the CPC is the choice of history and the people. The Chinese people are clear-eyed about the US's ill intention of suppressing and containing China's development and thwarting the Chinese nation's rejuvenation. Attempts to drive a wedge between the Chinese people and the CPC will not succeed.

This Act also contains a large number of negative provisions on Taiwan which seriously violate the one-China principle and the stipulations in the three China-US Joint Communiqués. This sends a gravely wrong signal to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces and severely affects peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan is China's Taiwan. No external interference in China's internal affairs will be tolerated. The US needs to stop seeking to use Taiwan to contain China, stop fudging, distorting and hollowing out the one-China principle, and stop moving even further down the wrong and dangerous path.

We urge the US to earnestly follow through on the important common understandings reached between the two presidents in Bali, abandon the Cold-War and zero-sum mentality and ideological bias, adopt an objective and rational view of China's development and China-US relations, and not to implement the negative China-related sections in the Act. China will take strong and resolute measures to firmly safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests.