Economic and trade cooperation between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has achieved fruitful results over the past decade or so, officials with the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday.
Officials from the ministry, speaking at a press conference, said that trade between China and ASEAN had grown at an average annual rate of 7.5 percent since 2013.
China has remained ASEAN's largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years, while ASEAN has remained China's largest trading partner for four consecutive years with the cumulative two-way investment between China and ASEAN countries exceeding 400 billion U.S. dollars by July this year, according to officials.
The officials also said that the 21st China-ASEAN Expo will be held in Nanning, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from Sept. 24 to 28. The 21st China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit will also be held in Nanning during the period.
China, ASEAN economic cooperation achieves fruitful results: official
A Chinese military spokesperson on Wednesday condemned a recent U.S. assessment report for its irresponsible remarks on China, saying that smearing China cannot help remove the U.S. label as the empire of hacking.
Zhang Xiaogang, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks while responding to a media query concerning the 2025 Annual Threat Assessment released by the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which claims that China is the biggest military and cyber threat for the U.S., and that the Chinese military likely will use large language models for information operations to generate deceptive content.
The United States often accuses others of actions it itself has taken or is currently engaged in, Zhang said, adding that it is not only the main source of cyber attacks against China but also a well-known global cyber threat.
"From the case of WikiLeaks to the incident of Edward Snowden, from the 'Stellar Wind' surveillance program to 'Operation Telescreen' (the Bvp47 backdoor program), the U.S. has been doing whatever it wants to do in cyberspace, resorting to every extreme measure for surveillance, espionage and attacks, leaving behind a disgraceful and shameful track record," Zhang charged.
"Smearing China can not help remove the U.S. label as the 'empire of hacking'. We require the U.S. side to stop acting like a thief crying 'stop thief', cease cyberattacks against other countries around the world, including China, and act responsibly to ensure a clear and secure cyberspace for all of humanity," said the spokesman.
Smearing China cannot help remove U.S. label as empire of hacking: defense spokesperson
