China firmly opposes US signing into law national defense authorization act: spokesperson

BEIJING -- China deplores and firmly opposes the US passing and signing into law the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, which contains negative content concerning China, a foreign ministry spokesperson said Saturday in a press release.

China has made serious demarches to the United States, the spokesperson said.

This Act, in total disregard of facts, hypes up the "China threat" narrative, blatantly interferes in China's internal affairs, and attacks and discredits the Communist Party of China (CPC), said the spokesperson, adding that this is a serious political provocation against China.

The spokesperson said that the leadership of the CPC is the choice of history and the people. The Chinese people are clear-eyed about the US ill intention of suppressing and containing China's development and thwarting the Chinese nation's rejuvenation. "Attempts to drive a wedge between the Chinese people and the CPC will not succeed."

This Act also contains a large number of negative provisions on Taiwan which seriously violate the one-China principle and the stipulations in the three China-US Joint Communiques. This sends a gravely wrong signal to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces and severely affects peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, according to the spokesperson.

"Taiwan is China's Taiwan. No external interference in China's internal affairs will be tolerated," said the spokesperson, stressing that the United States needs to stop seeking to use Taiwan to contain China, stop fudging, distorting and hollowing out the one-China principle, and stop moving even further down the wrong and dangerous path.

"We urge the United States to earnestly follow through on the important common understandings reached between the two presidents in Bali, abandon the Cold-War and zero-sum mentality and ideological bias, adopt an objective and rational view of China's development and China-US relations, and not to implement the negative China-related sections in the Act," said the spokesperson, adding that China will take strong and resolute measures to firmly safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests.