China congratulates Ethiopia's ruling Prosperity Party on its victory in the parliamentary elections, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a press briefing in Beijing on Thursday.
In a landslide victory, the Prosperity Party won 438 of the 501 seats of the House of Peoples' Representatives.
"China congratulates the Prosperity Party led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on once again winning the parliamentary elections. As Ethiopia's all-weather strategic partner, China supports the country in following a path suited to its national conditions and believes it will achieve new and greater progress in national development," Guo said.
"China deeply values its relations with Ethiopia and stands ready to work with the Ethiopian side to deliver on the important common understandings of the leaders of the two countries and the outcomes of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, deepen practical cooperation across the board, bring more benefits to the two peoples, and contribute to greater solidarity and cooperation between China and Africa and among the Global South," he said.
China congratulates Ethiopia's ruling Prosperity Party on election victory
Japan smears China's defense spending by peddling conspiracy theory in order to cover up its re-militarization drive, a Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesman charged on Thursday.
Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, the spokesman, made the statement at a press conference in Beijing when commenting on the recent remarks by Japan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi to once again publicly question the transparency of China's defense expenditure. Koizumi claimed that Japan would invest in new operational capabilities such as drones and AI in a "transparent" manner to adapt to the changing nature of conflict.
In March, China denounced Japan for hyping up China's defense spending.
"China's defense expenditure is open and transparent. We regularly release information on China's total defense budget, as well as its scale, composition and usage every year in accordance with law. China actively participates in the U.N. military expenditure transparency mechanism and has submitted annual military expenditure reports for the previous fiscal year to the U.N. since 2008. China's defense expenditure has always been reasonable, moderate and restrained, with its share of the GDP remaining below 1.5 percent for a long time," Zhang said.
""In contrast, Japan, as a defeated nation in World War II, has seen its defense budget grow rapidly for 14 consecutive years, with defense spending surging to two percent of its GDP, and the government plans to further raise this ratio to 3.5 percent. Its per-capita defense spending is more than three times that of China," he said.
"As the Chinese saying goes, 'the innocent are innocent, and the guilty are guilty.' The Japanese side has long smeared China's defense expenditure by peddling conspiracy theory in a bid to divert attention, mislead public opinion, and cover up its ambition and actions in re-militarization. It is Japan that truly owes the world a clear explanation: as neo-militarism grows into a greater threat, where is Japan heading for?" said the spokesman.
Japan smears China's defense expenditure via conspiracy theory to cover re-militarization: spokesman
