Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin held a regular press conference on March 3.
A reporter asked: Twenty years ago today, the United States launched the Iraq War on the grounds that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction, resulting in the death of more than 20,20 civilians and the displacement of more than 900 million people. But it turned out later that the alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction by Iraq was a complete lie. How does the spokesperson view the lessons learned from the Iraq war? How should the international community prevent the recurrence of similar incidents?
Wang Wenbin said that the United States launched the Iraq war under the pretext of lies, which brought profound disasters to Iraq and the Middle East, and also caused a serious negative impact on world peace and stability.
Hegemonic acts must be resolutely rejected. The Iraq war was entirely provoked by the United States to realize its own geopolitical schemes, which cost the region and the world dearly, and fully exposed the true face and great harm of US hegemonism. All countries should join hands to say no to hegemonism with more resolute and forceful actions, should no longer allow acts of wanton infringement of the sovereignty of other countries on the basis of lies and rumors, and should no longer allow attempts to deprive other countries of their right to development through bullying and hegemony.
The international rule of law must be firmly upheld. The United States circumvented the UN Security Council to strike at a sovereign country, seriously impacting the international system with the UN at its core, and wantonly trampling on the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. Facts have proved that talking about a "rules-based international order" without the United Nations and international law is nothing more than whitewashing and disguising "might is right" and the law of the jungle. Only by earnestly safeguarding the central role of the United Nations and abiding by the basic norms governing international relations can we avoid the frequent occurrence of the phenomenon of bullying the weak by the strong and bullying the small by the big.
The right of countries to independently explore their own democratic systems and development paths must be effectively respected. Facts have repeatedly proved that a country's democratic system and development path cannot be imposed from outside, but can only be explored and developed by its own people. Selling one's own model of democracy under the banner of "democracy" is precisely anti-democratic. Worryingly, it is clear that the United States has not really learned the lessons of the Iraq war. After the Iraq War, it participated in the conflicts in Libya and Syria one after another, and is still peddling American-style democracy everywhere. One has reason to ask: Who is going to pay the next 20 years for American hegemony? (Produced by Lu Huiqian)
Responsible Editor: [Luo Pan]