Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying rebuffed a US official’s claim that China is “spying” on Africa by helping establish a disease control center in African countries, saying China-Africa relations are long tested and won’t be disturbed by such provocation.
An unnamed official was quoted by the Financial Times as saying that China is “spying” on the African disease control centers, which Hua dismissed as “just as ridiculous as recent allegations by some in the US that China is building the African Union conference center to steal African Union data.”
“It is total nonsense, but reflects some US individuals’ vicious suspicions,” Hua said.
China-Africa relations are long tested.
“At the critical moment of China’s fight against the [novel coronavirus] epidemic, many African governments and people have also expressed their support to China in various ways,” Hua said.
“Tribulation sees true love. China-Africa friendship has withstood the trials of storms. It won’t be disturbed by such individual dissonance.”
After the Ebola virus broke out in West Africa in 2014, countries in the region called for international support to help establish disease control centers. China has joined in helping establish such control centers in 2015.
Some Western countries, including the US, shut down their embassies and evacuated their envoys in the three worst Ebola-hit countries Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in March 2014, while Chinese diplomats remained there to help locals fight the virus.
To date, China has sent 21,000medical workers to Africa and has helped more than 220 million people there, Hua said.
“Some Chinese medics even sacrificed themselves in their aid work in Africa,” Hua noted.
