A Chinese spokesman has leveled some of his
government's harshest criticism against the United States for "initiating" the
global financial crisis that has worsened conditions for workers around the
world.
At Tuesday's regular briefing, a reporter from the Bloomberg News
Agency asked the Chinese Foreign Ministry to respond to a U.S. State Department
statement saying China could use the global financial crisis as a pretext to
weaken labor rights.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang says his
government firmly opposes what he describes as an "accusation" by the American
side.
Innocent victims?
Instead, he says the United States
initiated the global financial crisis, which has led to the loss of hundreds of
thousands of jobs, worldwide.
Qin says he has spoken with people from
different countries who all complain that many of their workers have lost their
jobs because of the crisis.
He calls workers the "innocent victims" of
the economic downturn and says he wonders what a U.S. spokesperson would say to
them.
Pointing fingers
The Chinese official was asked if he
feels the United States owes an apology to the workers of the world.
Qin
says people have different views on opinions about and reasons for the issue.
But he says if a country makes mistakes, it should "at least stop pointing
fingers at others."
The Chinese spokesman was also asked to comment on
why China trimmed its holdings of U.S. Treasury debt, in April. He gave no
details, but repeated previous comments that China decides how much American
debt to buy based on three principles: security, liquidity and good value.