China Rejects Criticism at Paris Summit as ‘Gross Interference’

Criticism of China’s suppression of pro-democracy demonstrations, made in Paris over the weekend by leaders of the world’s top industrial democracies, provoked a bitter response Monday from Chinese authorities.

A statement by the “Group of Seven” leading industrialized nations that condemned China for “violent repression . . . in defiance of human rights” constitutes “gross interference” in China’s internal affairs, the official People’s Daily declared in an editorial.

“The G-7 summit made a miscalculation in continuing to exert pressure on China in a bid to force it to drop the just struggle against rebellion and subversion,” declared the newspaper, which is the voice of the Communist Party.

“It is necessary to point out that the actions taken by the Chinese government have in no way offended the West or any other countries,” the editorial continued. “The problem arises simply because certain countries, out of their own likes and dislikes and their sense of value, have . . . directly damaged China’s interests and dignity with words and deeds.”

The editorial also warned residents of Hong Kong that they must not interfere in China’s affairs.

The British colony is due to revert to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 under the formula “one country, two systems,” meaning that it can remain capitalist while China remains socialist. This has been interpreted primarily as a promise that Hong Kong’s system will remain unchanged. But in recent weeks, Beijing has begun to stress that this also means Hong Kong residents must not try to undermine communism in China.

“You carry out your capitalism and we carry out our socialism, and neither side should poke its nose into the other’s affairs,” the editorial declared, in one of the bluntest descriptions of the “one country, two system” formula ever published.

The editorial continued with a vague but colorful threat: “The current problem is that some people attempt to use Hong Kong as a base to interfere in, or even to change, the socialist system on the mainland. This cannot be allowed. We advise those people not to lift a rock only to crush their own feet.”

A Foreign Ministry spokesman, in a statement released Monday through the official New China News Agency, declared that the Group of Seven statement “contravenes the most basic norms governing international relations and is absolutely unacceptable to the Chinese government.”

‘Will Only Harm Themselves’

“This act by the participating countries is unwise and will only harm themselves in the end,” the spokesman said.

The People’s Daily editorial, in an appeal to the economic and security interests of developed nations, stressed that “China is a country of global strategic importance and can provide an enormous market both in reality and potentiality.”

“The shortsighted practice of keeping China away from the world community may not only undermine world peace and stability but hurt the interests of the Western countries as well,” the editorial said. “It is our advice that those hostile to China should look ahead a little farther and that it would be better for them to change over to a more sensible and realistic attitude--because trouble should be ended by those who started it.”

Both the editorial and the Foreign Ministry spokesman also stressed that China intends to remain open to the world.