We are transmitting their statement in its entirety.

"We have noticed that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo continued to spread the 'political virus' during his visit to Croatia. He maliciously embarrassed the Chinese Communist Party, attacked China for no reason and tried to sabotage China-Croatia relations. The Chinese side strongly opposes this. The Chinese people have united as one and achieved significant world development since the founding of the People 's Republic of China under the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China.

We call on some American politicians to stop their arrogance and bias towards China. Such their behavior is doomed to failure. The US is recklessly slandering China and Chinese companies without any evidence. Their real goal is not to protect privacy or maintain cyber security, but to strengthen their own digital hegemony to deprive other countries of development rights. We will strongly support relevant companies to protect their legitimate rights and interests, and we will also protect the rules of international trade.

China always insists on developing friendship and cooperation with other countries on the basis of mutual respect. We stand ready to continue working with all countries, maintaining a fair, open and non-discriminatory business environment to ensure reliable and quality information technology, and to foster global economic recovery and help improve the quality of life of people around the world.

We believe that the international community has a clear position and understands the political tricks used by a small group of American politicians and will not blindly ‘dance’ with the US. We also hope that the United States will return to the right path of openness and cooperation, according to a statement sent by the Chinese embassy on Friday night. "