The Chinese government on Friday urged US authorities to abandon their “illegal occupation” of territories in Cuba, urging Washington to “close its detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay and withdraw from the base in Guantanamo as soon as possible.”
“In recent years, successive US administrations have repeatedly promised to close the detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay, but have not done so. Despite repeated protests by the Cuban government, the United States has illegally occupied part of Guantanamo Bay for more than 120 years,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian, in statements reported by Xinhua.
Along the same lines, Lin has accused the US of “seriously violating international law and undermining the sovereignty, rights and interests of Cuba,” alleging that it has not only “illegally occupied part of Guantanamo Bay for a long time,” but has also carried out “arbitrary detentions and torture” in its detention centers in order to “obtain confessions.”
“The repeated failure by the United States to comply with its promise to close this ‘concentration camp’ run by itself will only add another stain to the negative record of the United States in terms of human rights,” added the Foreign Ministry spokesman, recalling that the UN has also repeatedly demanded the closure of these detention facilities and fair treatment for those detained in them.
Lin has criticised the “hypocrisy and double standards” of the US presence in Guantanamo Bay, stressing that Washington “keeps Cuba on the list as a supposed ‘state sponsor of terrorism’, while continuing to carry out “massive arbitrary detentions” after “more than a century of illegal US interference in Cuba”.
“China firmly supports Cuba in defending its national sovereignty and dignity, and opposes US interference in Cuba’s internal affairs. The United States needs to stop intimidating and blocking Cuba, return the Cuban people their lands and remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism,” the Chinese government said.
