China News Service, Beijing, April 7 (Reporter Huang Yuqin Liang Xiaohui) Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian hosted a regular press conference on the 7th.

　　A reporter asked: The preparatory meeting for the Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention is being held in Geneva. Russia has accused the US of violating the Biological Weapons Convention with its biological military activities in Ukraine.

The United States continued to accuse Russia of spreading false information, and also called the international community's criticism of the United States' exclusive opposition to the establishment of a verification mechanism for the Biological Weapons Convention as "historical revisionism."

What is China's comment?

　　Zhao Lijian: The United States is the country with the most biomilitary activities in the world, and the only country that opposes the establishment of a verification mechanism.

The international community has long had serious concerns about this, and related issues have been the focus of BWC meetings.

At the meeting, Russia accused the United States of violating the Convention on biological military activities, and raised clear and specific concerns.

Regrettably, the US still did not respond directly, but repeatedly accused Russia of spreading false information.

This practice itself does not comply with the provisions of the Convention.

According to the convention, Russia has the right to question the US's compliance, and the US is obliged to cooperate in making clarifications, which should ultimately be assessed and judged by the international community.

　　I would also like to point out one basic fact.

According to the working paper submitted by the US to the Conference of the Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention in November 2021, under the Biological Threat Reduction Project, there are 336 so-called "cooperative facilities" by the US, including 26 in Ukraine.

However, the so-called "fact document" released by the US Department of Defense on March 11, 2022 also stated that there are 46 "cooperative facilities" in Ukraine.

Why did the US add 20 "cooperation facilities" in Ukraine within 4 months?

Not only that, the above-mentioned working document of the US side has errors in itself, and one country appears twice in the document.

Therefore, the total of 336 is also inaccurate.

The international community has questioned this. What reason does the US have for not clarifying it, and what reason does it have for calling it false information?

　　I also noticed that the US called the international community's criticism of the US' exclusive opposition to the establishment of the BWC verification mechanism as "historical revisionism", and even claimed that this matter should be turned over, and there is no need to talk about the verification mechanism.

The above statement of the US side is shocking.

In July 2001, it was the United States that suddenly and unilaterally announced its withdrawal from the negotiation, causing the results of the seven-year negotiation between the parties to be wasted.

The international community was in an uproar at that time.

At the preparatory meeting for the Convention Review Conference being held, the vast majority of countries, including the allies of the United States, advocate the resumption of multilateral negotiations to establish a verification mechanism as soon as possible. Only the United States is opposed to it.

　　The characteristic of the multilateral verification mechanism is that it grants equal rights and obligations to all countries in a fair and just manner.

What the US wants is to arbitrarily accuse other countries of breaching the contract and demand a "presumption of guilt" type of verification, while refusing to accept any supervision and verification of its own compliance.

This is the essence of the United States' exclusive opposition to the verification mechanism.

　　The BWC belongs to the international community, and the issue of compliance concerns international peace and security, and cannot be arbitrarily defined by the United States based on its own double standards.

The United States is one of the depositary countries of the Convention, and should be an example in compliance, not an exception.

We once again urge the US to make comprehensive and specific clarifications on its biomilitary activities, and stop its exclusive opposition to the establishment of a multilateral verification mechanism, so as to restore the international community's confidence in the US' compliance.

(over)