BEIJING – China has accused the US and German embassies of meddling in thecountry’s internal affairs after they objected to the prosecutions of anactivist and a lawyer.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said during a press briefing inBeijing on Thursday that a joint statement by the embassies calling for WuGan’s release and for lawyer Xie Yang to be allowed to return to work wasirresponsible.
“The embassies of those two countries are diplomatic missions, which haveno right to point the finger at China’s internal affairs and judicialsovereignty,” media outlets quoted the spokeswoman as saying.
“We hope the relevant embassies can have a clear understanding of theirduties and do something to help improve mutual trust, mutual understandingand cooperation, not the opposite,” she added.
The statement issued by the two embassies criticized the “seriousmistreatment” of Wu and Xie in detention.
“We urge Chinese authorities to view lawyers and rights defenders aspartners in strengthening Chinese society through development of the ruleof law,” the joint statement read.
Wu, a blogger better known by his online name of Super Vulgar Butcher,was jailed for subversion on Tuesday after being sentenced to eight years.