The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Sunday issued a factsheet titled "Falsehoods in U.S. Perceptions of China," exposing "how deceptive, hypocritical and dangerous the U.S.'s China policy is" with detailed facts and figures.

The report laid out 21 points in response to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's recent speech at Asia Society that outlined the U.S. administration's approach toward China.

Covering a range of topics involving the two countries, the factsheet debunked how U.S. attempted to contain and suppress China through promoting the "China threat" narrative, interfering in China's internal affairs and smearing China's domestic and foreign policies.

Disrupting world order

The Chinese Foreign Ministry pointed out "what the U.S. has constantly vowed to preserve is a so-called international order designed to serve the U.S.'s own interests and perpetuate its hegemony."

The U.S. has blatantly violated the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the norms governing international relations, it said, adding the U.S. habitually puts its domestic law above the international law and selectively applies international rules as it sees fit.

The factsheet noted that throughout the 240-plus-year history of the U.S., there were only 16 years in which the U.S. was not at war.

The ministry said the U.S. imposed unilateral sanctions on Cuba, Iran, Belarus, Syria and Zimbabwe, among others, over the years, and ratcheted up "maximum pressure" against countries including the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Venezuela.

"Statistics show that the previous U.S. administration had imposed over 3,900 sanction measures, which means it wielded its 'big stick' three times a day on average. As of fiscal year 2021, the entities and individuals on U.S. sanction lists topped 9,421, which was 933 percent higher compared to the fiscal year 2000."

"The 'rules-based international order' championed by the U.S. is in fact another version of power politics. This is an attempt to impose one's own will and standards on others and replace commonly accepted international laws and norms with the house rules of a few countries," the factsheet read.

The report also urged the U.S. to fulfill its financial obligations to the UN, as the country owed over $1 billion in dues for the UN's regular budget and over $1.4 billion for peacekeeping assessments.

Containing and suppressing China

Despite its claims that it doesn't seek to block China from its role as a major power or stop it from growing its economy, the U.S. is actually deploying its domestic and external resources to contain and suppress China, said the Foreign Ministry.

According to the factsheet, the U.S. has placed over 1,000 Chinese companies on various sanctions lists, subjected biotechnology and artificial intelligence technologies to enhanced export controls and stringent investment reviews, and sought to ban Chinese social media platforms including TikTok and WeChat.

"Clinging to a Cold War mentality and the hegemon's logic, the U.S. pursues bloc politics, concocts the 'democracy versus authoritarianism' narrative, cajoles other countries into forming exclusive cliques, strengthens the Five Eyes, peddles the Quad mechanism, puts together AUKUS with the UK and Australia and ramps up bilateral military alliances in a clear attempt at countering China."

China-U.S. relations have reached an important crossroads, the ministry stressed, urging the U.S. side to stop viewing bilateral ties through a Cold War, zero-sum mindset, follow the three principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, and reflect in its action the five assurances it has made to China.

U.S.'s democratic standards

Regarding democracy, the factsheet noted the U.S. sets its own standards and does not allow other systems to exist, ganging up to wantonly interfere in the internal affairs of other countries in the name of democracy.

"The American-style democracy is a rich men's game based on capital." The ministry takes the U.S. National Rifle Association (NRA) as an example: The association with 5 million members is an important funder of the Republican Party, and since its establishment in 1871, it has successfully attracted nine U.S. presidents to join it. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. is the country most rampant with gun violence. According to the factsheet, the U.S. owns more than 400 million guns, or 46 percent of all private guns in the world, while it has a population of 333 million, or 4 percent of the world's total. "It tops the world in terms of gun ownership, and shooting incidents every now and then in the U.S. take away more than 110 lives on a daily average. Many people say it is easier to buy a gun than baby formula in the U.S."

The factsheet also cited a Pew Research Center report from October 2021 based on a survey of 17 advanced economies including the U.S., Germany and South Korea, which shows that the U.S. is more politically divided than the other economies surveyed. Nine in 10 U.S. respondents said they believed there was "strong conflict" between people who supported different political parties, and nearly 60 percent of Americans surveyed said their fellow citizens no longer disagreed simply over policies, but also over basic facts.

On China's domestic affairs, foreign policy

"The U.S. has a record of grossly interfering in China's domestic affairs on issues concerning China's core interests, including Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong," the Foreign Ministry said, adding the U.S. seeks to undermine China's security and stability by, both overtly and covertly, condoning and supporting separatist activities.

On the Taiwan question, the U.S. has acted faithlessly, kept regressing from its own commitments and the consensus it reached with China, attempted to weaken and undermine the one-China principle, and used Taiwan to contain China, the factsheet read. "This is a major threat to peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits."

The Chinese Foreign Ministry pointed out the U.S. has even kept backpedaling on history. For instance, the U.S. has reneged on its commitment "that it intends gradually to reduce its sale of arms to Taiwan." According to the report, the U.S. arms sales to Taiwan has exceeded $70 billion. Moreover, since 2021, the U.S. leader has stated publicly on three occasions that the U.S. would help defend Taiwan in case of a war in the Taiwan Straits.

The report also elaborated on the situation in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and slammed the U.S.'s groundless accusations against China on issues related to the two regions.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry also listed the falsehood spread by the U.S. about China's stance on the Ukraine issue, reiterating China has always adhered to an objective and just position, a position shared by most countries. 

"The Cold War mentality and power politics is the root cause of the Ukraine crisis. The U.S. should earnestly shoulder its due responsibilities and take concrete actions to ease the situation and solve the problems," it said.

The factsheet also covered the topic including the U.S.'s Indo-Pacific strategy, bilateral trade frictions, fentanyl abuse and the U.S.'s false depiction of China's maritime rights, technology development and climate response.