CGTN
China said that any multilateral mechanism should conform to the trend of the times, which is peace and development, and be conducive to enhancing mutual trust and cooperation between countries. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a regular press briefing ahead of the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting in Australia. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Australia on Wednesday to attend the meeting with top diplomats of Australia, Japan and India. Daniel Kritenbrink, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said in a phone briefing last Friday that the meeting will address the “challenges that China poses” to democratic values and the international order. Zhao said democracy is a common value of humanity, not a “patent” of a small number of countries. Whether a country is democratic or not should only be judged by its own people, he said. The spokesperson criticized the United States for forcing other countries to accept its own standards of democracy and putting together small groups based on democratic values, calling it a “complete betrayal” to democracy. China is committed to promoting peace, development and cooperation, and building an equal, open and inclusive security system in the Asia-Pacific region that does not target any third country, Zhao said. China opposes attempts to form closed and exclusive small circles and create confrontation between camps, he added.
China and the majority of countries in the world recognize and uphold an international system with the United Nations at its core and an international order based on international law, not the “rules-based” order defined by one or several countries, he stressed.
