BEIJING (TASS) - The Chinese authorities support Russia’s stance on the unacceptability of Washington’s manipulation of the concept of democratic values, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian reported on Friday commenting on Washington’s plans to hold the Summit for Democracy.
“We believe that the recent statement by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov regarding the U.S. Summit for Democracy is perfectly correct. This U.S. ploy to create new dividing lines threatens to step up ideological confrontation,” he told a briefing. “What right does Washington have to proclaim itself a model of democracy?” the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman asked.
The Chinese diplomat specified that the U.S. “distorts the term of democracy.” “Why would the U.S. hold a leader-level event devoted to democracy?” Zhao Lijian said.
On Wednesday, Peskov branded the forthcoming Summit for Democracy, scheduled for December, as a gimmick by Washington to whip up more discord and stressed Russia’s negative attitude to this event. As the U.S. State Department reported, 110 countries and territories have been invited to attend this event broadcast via video conference on December 9-10. The list includes Taiwan, but it does not include China or Russia.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the Washington-led Summit for Democracy was aimed at “dividing people and countries into democratic and not democratic [ones].” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova chastised the Summit for Democracy as a “chimera, expected to show that the collective West has some constructive, unifying agenda.”