The U.S. ambassador to China called on the Foreign Ministry in Beijing to stop spreading Russia’s “lies,” in an unusually direct and public rebuke by the top American diplomat in the country.
Ambassador Nicholas Burns made the “request” in response to a question at a government-backed forum Monday about what China could do to resolve the crisis over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Burns reiterated President Joe Biden’s call for Beijing to avoid helping Moscow carry out the war, before pivoting to a simmering point of contention between the world’s two largest economies.
“I would hope that Chinese foreign ministry spokespersons would stop accusing NATO of starting this war. That’s Russian propaganda,” Burns told the World Peace Forum organized by Tsinghua University. “I hope Foreign Ministry spokespersons would also stop telling lies about American bioweapons labs, which do not exist in Ukraine.
