No one has better claim to 'master of coercion' title than US: FM spokesperson

BEIJING, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- In response to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's claim that China coerced Australia by economic means, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday that no one has a better claim to the title of "master of coercion" than the United States.

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a daily press briefing that the U.S. government forced the military government of Haiti to step down in 1994, and referred to that as "a textbook example of coercive diplomacy".

In 2003, the United States explicitly characterized 30.3 billion U.S. dollars additional military expenses for "coercive diplomacy" as incurred expenses, Zhao added.

The U.S. government went all out to hobble competitors like Huawei of China, Alstom of France and Toshiba of Japan and used coercion to force the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), Samsung and other companies to provide chip supply chain data, said the spokesperson, adding these are textbook examples of economic coercion.

Reiterating that China always proceeds from the lawful rights and interests of domestic industries and the safety of consumers and adopts appropriate measures on imported products in strict compliance with Chinese laws and regulations as well as WTO rules, Zhao said this is fully justified, lawful and beyond reproach.

The label of "economic coercion" cannot be pinned on China, Zhao said, adding all attempts to gang up with others to misrepresent facts and resort to malicious hype-up are bound to fail.