Foreign Ministry condemns Australian claims of 'infiltration'

China expressed on Wednesday dissatisfaction with and strong opposition to accusations that the Chinese consulate general in Australia and its officials are engaged in infiltration activities as reported by some media, saying this is totally baseless and vicious slander.

Speaking at a regular news briefing in Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that some people in Australia are busy instigating anti-China sentiment through slander in order to gain attention and poison China-Australia relations.

"They are doing whatever they can think of for this end," Wang said.

He made the remarks in response to an Australian Broadcasting Corporation report on Tuesday that Australian police had accessed the communications of Chinese diplomats and named a Chinese consular official in a warrant as part of an investigation into alleged political interference.

The spokesman emphasized that China stays committed to an independent foreign policy of peace and has never engaged in "interference" or "infiltration" as this is definitely not China's way of conducting its affairs. It is also unnecessary to do so, he added.

"We urge some people in Australia to discard their Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice, stop politicizing the normal activities of the Chinese embassy and consulates in Australia, and avoid creating new troubles and obstacles to bilateral ties," Wang said.

In a statement issued on its website on Wednesday, China's consulate general in Sydney said that it is committed to promoting friendly exchanges and pragmatic cooperation in various fields, and always observes international law and the basic norms of international relations.

Also at the briefing, Wang said it was "vile in nature" that a US surveillance plane recently disguised itself as a Malaysian aircraft to spy on China's Hainan Island and the Xisha Islands, and China resolutely opposed this.

"We urge the US side to immediately stop such dangerous provocation and avoid the occurrence of accidents," he said.