Beijing has expressed strong opposition to Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton's remarks saying that "China damaged the sovereignty of other countries and challenged the rule-based international order."
"China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposed to the remarks by an official of the Australian Department of Defense publicly hyping up "China threat theory" and making groundless accusations toward China, which is extremely dangerous and irresponsible," said Senior Colonel Wu Qian, spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense earlier on Friday.
His comment comes after Australia's Defense Minister Peter Dutton said "that the world is "grappling with a regional environment far more complex and far less predictable than at any time since the Second World War", China's Ministry of National Defense said in a statement citing media reports.
He further added that "China damaged the sovereignty of other countries and challenged the rule-based international order."
Dutton also asserted that the "China threat" has become more serious and China's development of military strength has undermined global stability.
"Wu said Dutton's provocative remarks fully revealed his Cold War mentality and ideological biases, which not only go against the current trend of world peace, development and cooperation but also harm the regional peace and stability as well as Australia's own interests," the statement said.
Recently, Sino-Australian relations have dipped after the Chinese leadership was incensed with Canberra calling for an independent investigation into the origins of the novel coronavirus.
Relations had started to fray in 2018 when Australia banned Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies from building its 5G network, the first Western country to do so. Canberra has also been locked in an ongoing trade war with Beijing for several months as China has slapped sanctions on various Australian products.
( With inputs from ANI )
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