Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday urged the U.S. to lift the freeze on Afghanistan’s assets so as to avoid “second damage” to the Afghan people.
“Afghanistan is in a critical transition from chaos to order. All parties must uphold the ‘Afghan-led, Afghan-owned’ principle and support the Afghan people in exploring a development path suited to the national circumstances,” Wang said at a press conference on the sidelines of the fifth session of the 13th National People’s Congress.
Assets frozen in the U.S. belong to the Afghan people and should be returned to them unconditionally so as to help them get through the cold winter and embrace the coming of spring, the foreign minister said.
It was earlier reported that, the United States seized Afghan assets without the consent of the Afghan people, which is tantamount to robbery, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Tuesday, urging the U.S. to lift the freeze.
Spokesperson Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a press briefing when asked to comment on the executive order signed by U.S. President Joe Biden regarding the 7 billion U.S. dollar frozen assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan.
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Without the consent of the Afghan people, the U.S. willfully disposes of assets that belong to the Afghan people, even keeping them as its own. “This is no different from the conduct of bandits,” Wang said.
This latest example has once again laid bare that the “rules-based order” the U.S. claims to champion is not the kind of rules and order to defend the weak and uphold justice, but to maintain its own hegemony, Wang noted.
As the culprit of the Afghan crisis, the U.S. should not exacerbate the suffering of the Afghan people, he said.
It should unfreeze their assets, lift unilateral sanctions on Afghanistan as soon as possible, and assume its due responsibility to ease the humanitarian crisis in the country, said the spokesperson
