1月16日，外交部发言人汪文斌主持例行记者会。

有记者提问：据报道，13日，美国总统拜登同日本首相岸田文雄在华盛顿举行会谈并发表联合声明，称中国违反基于规则的国际秩序，导致当前亚太地区挑战上升；双方致力于加强美日同盟和对日防卫，并在东海、台湾等问题上指责中国。发言人对此有何回应？

The ugly playbook jointly used by Japan and the US to tarnish China’s image, interfere in China’s internal affairs and suppress China’s development is packed with danger and hypocrisy. We firmly reject it and have conveyed strong démarches.

Japan’s militarist past, marked by devastating wars of aggression and brutal crimes against humanity, brought untold suffering on this region and beyond. Instead of drawing serious lessons from its past, Japan has displayed a dangerous tendency of rearming itself, with sharp rises in its annual defense spending for the 11th year running and constant readjustment of its defense policy aimed at military breakthrough. To justify its aggressive military build-up, Japan has been falsely hyping up regional tensions. It is even seeking to bring NATO into the Asia-Pacific. All of this makes people wonder whether Japan is tearing itself away from post-war peaceful development and fear the growing danger of history repeating itself. Our message for Japan: anyone seeking to jeopardize and risk the security and stability in the Asia-Pacific will be rejected and pushed back by countries across the region.

The US preaches the so-called “rules-based order”, but is second to none when it comes to undermining the international rules and order. From unwarranted invasion of other countries to arbitrary unilateral sanctions, from owing large arrears to the UN’s regular budget to deliberately impeding the appointment of new judges to the WTO’s Appellate Body, from coercive diplomacy to piecing together exclusionary blocs, from muscle-flexing in the Asia-Pacific by deploying warships and military aircraft to opening Pandora’s box on nuclear proliferation, facts prove time and again that the US does not really care about rules or order. It cares about only one thing - the perpetuation of US hegemony. Any existing rule that stands in the way of US interests will be ignored, replaced or even thrown out of the window, even if it was proposed and written by the US itself.

It must be pointed out that China will stay firmly committed to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. No country or force can hold back China’s development. We will do what is necessary to resolutely defend our sovereignty, security and development interests.

We call on the US and Japan to step out of the Cold-War mentality, quit the obsession with containing and suppressing China, stop dangerously ramping up military build-up and propagating chaos in the world and return to the right path of peace, friendship and cooperation.