China foreign ministry briefing

(14 Apr 2016) China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday it was wrong for other countries to interfere in the internal affairs of another "under the pretext of human rights issues".
The comments from spokesman Lu Kang at a regular briefing came after a US State Department report on human rights around the world in 2015 criticised, amongst other cases, China's crackdown against lawyers.
Lu said that the report's China-related content "ignores the achievement of the cause of human rights in China, and interferes in China's stability and development by politicalising the human rights issues."
The report highlighted repression against civil society groups in a number of authoritarian nations and said that China's crackdown on lawyers reflects the government's insecurity in the face of popular aspiration for the rule of law.
The report also criticises the enforced disappearances of five men working in Hong Kong's publishing industry, saying Chinese security officials were believed to be responsible.
In response to this, Lu said that China firmly opposed "the unfounded accusations against Hong Kong affairs".
At the same briefing Lu also called for coordination in fighting the use of chemical weapons following a United Nations draft resolution that China and Russia introduced on Wednesday aiming at preventing their development and use by extremist groups like the Islamic State and the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front in Syria.
The draft resolution would require countries - especially Syria's neighbours Turkey and Iraq - to immediately report any actions by extremist groups to transfer, develop or acquire chemical weapons to the Security Council and to a recently established international body.


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