Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin Photo: Chinese Foreign Ministry

China has proposed not to export ammunitions to non-state entities and to export ammunition to areas of conflicts with a cautious and responsible manner at UN stage, calling on the international community to enhance management, which was embraced by many developing countries, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

The ministry's spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at the routine press briefing that the proposals were made at a session of the Open-Ended Working Group on Ammunition from February 13-17. The US continued its passive and conservative stance over rule-making on light weapons and ammunition, opposed those proposals. 

As is known to all, the US has the largest number of guns per capita, and gun violence has become a lingering nightmare for Americans. 

Similarly worrying, the US' lax management of light weapons and ammunition, and its unscrupulous exports have fueled military conflicts and social chaos. A huge amount of ammunition cannot be traced, and some even fall into the hands of terrorists and extremists, severely threatening international and regional peace and stability, Wang said. 

According to data from US Department of State, US arms exports increased around 50 percent and a major reason was the escalation of the Ukraine crisis and the US-led West's continuous weapon supply, Wang noted. 

Such actions not only prolong the crisis, but caused many weapons and ammunition destined for Ukraine to be smuggled to criminals in Europe and other regions. Interpol and Europol have imposed penalties or issued warnings on that, the spokesperson said. 

African leaders had said that terrorists in Lake Chad used weapons smuggled from Ukraine conflict zones and the US also admitted it is unknown where the weapons delivered by US end, according to Wang. 

The Mexican government said most of Mexico's domestic violence incidents can be traced to American weapons. ISIS and the Pakistan Taliban have been found to use American weapons. A monitoring from 2014-16 found 50,133 US-origin weapons in criminal files in 15 countries in the North and Central Americas and the Caribbean, which means US-made weapons are used for a crime every 31 minutes. 

The weapon export is just the tip of an iceberg of all "US exports." What the US brings to other countries are not democracy or human rights, but "blood debt" of poor livelihood and social unrest, Wang stressed.

The spokesperson urged the US to realize the more export of such kind, the stronger it will backfire. Instead of creating disasters, the US should think about what good things it can do for the international community.

Global Times