CHINA yesterday rebuked suggestions that the United States administration of President-elect Mr Bill Clinton would work to change the mainland from a communist regime into a democracy.
The Secretary of State-designate, Mr Warren Christopher, said on Wednesday the new administration would ''seek to facilitate a peaceful evolution of China from communism to democracy'' so that the country would rid itself of abuses in the human rights and other arenas.
But a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry said yesterday the US should mind its own business.
''US affairs should be dealt with by the American people, China's affairs should be dealt with by the Chinese people, this is only natural,'' Mr Wu Jianmin said.
Mr Wu said China was willing to ''improve and further develop its relations with the US on the basis of the three Sino-US joint communiques.'' He stressed, however, that the three joint communiques ''contained very important principles on non-mutual interference in each other's internal affairs and mutual respect''.
On a related issue, Mr Wu said that while the question of US sales of 150 F-16 jet fighters to Taiwan had not yet been resolved, China was willing to discuss the problem with the new administration.