Foreign Minister Qian Qichen last night criticised the 'big Western powers' for strangling the growth of the developing world and challenged them to give more money to promote better global equality.
Mr Qian, in an apparent reference to the United States, said that trade protection and the use of sanctions were crippling the economic development of poorer countries and undermining UN principles.
In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Mr Qian said Western powers were guilty of imposing harsher conditions on economic aid to the developing world, while expecting such countries to live up to environmental promises that they themselves were not keeping.
'The world today is far from being tranquil because the Cold War mentality still dies hard,' he said.
'Sanctions-wielding or even the use of force are trampling on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, thereby threatening and undermining world peace and stability.' Mr Qian also once again called on all nuclear powers to drastically cut back their stockpiles and renounce the rights of first use. Again referring to the US, he also called for a ban on space systems and similar missile defence systems.
Mr Qian, making it clear he considered China a developing country and likely to remain so in the medium term, said 'any acts prejudicial to developing countries will, in the final analysis, undermine the interests of developed countries.' Mr Qian's speech included some of his harshest comments on the growing gap between rich nations and the Third World.
