Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. Figure: Retrieved from the World Wide Web.
China secretly delivered advanced air defense systems to Russia’s ally Serbia on the 9th amid continued Russian aggression against Ukraine, with Western countries worried that China’s shipment of weapons to the Balkans could threaten the fragile peace in the region. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian was dissatisfied with the outside world’s doubts, and responded angrily: “The United States sells arms to Europe and Taiwan. Have you ever been concerned about harming regional peace and stability?”
According to the Chinese state media Global Times, a foreign media reporter asked the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs at a regular press conference of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs whether it could confirm that China has recently delivered the latest generation of Chinese-made medium-range surface-to-air defense missile systems to Serbia. “Red Flag 22” (HQ-22)? Is this related to the current situation of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine?
Zhao Lijian claimed that in order to implement the bilateral cooperation plan between China and Serbia, China recently dispatched air force transport planes to deliver conventional military supplies to Serbia. This is a cooperation project between China and Serbia in the annual plan. The project is not aimed at third parties and has nothing to do with the current situation.”
When asked by foreign media reporters, China’s sale of military supplies to Serbia “is it worried that it will damage the fragile peace in the region?” Zhao Lijian jumped in anger and asked, “I don’t know what you mean by this question? The United States sells arms to Europe and Taiwan. Have you ever been concerned about damaging regional peace and stability? Will China’s sale of some conventional military supplies to Serbia undermine regional peace and stability?”
In this regard, some netizens slapped Zhao Lijian in the face and pointed out: “The nature is different, who does Serbia want to defend? The pro-Russian Serbia has put it bluntly and is only exporting to Russia”, “The US military is selling Taiwan and your mainland is not jumping”, “The US is buying weapons for A country in need of defense, China is an accomplice who sells weapons to aggressors, and Russia is aggressing other countries, isn’t it?”