China's state-owned CGTN quoted China's Ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai as saying (July 18) during an interview with Farid Zakaria on CNN that “Actually, the Chinese civilization has been there for about 5,000 years, much longer than the United States. And there is strong continuity for the Chinese civilization and there are ongoing efforts by the Chinese people to modernize our own country. This has never changed, whether in the last 70 years or in the last seven years. This is a continuing process. We certainly have the legitimate right to build our country into a modernized, strong, prosperous country, like every other country in the world. I think the fundamental question for the United States is very simple – is the United States ready or willing to live with another country with very different culture, very different political and economic systems, whether the United States is ready to live with it in peace and cooperate on so many and still growing global challenges. I think this is a real choice. This is a fundamental choice people have to make". Cui Tiankai, in a reference to Covid-19, dismissed accusations that China "hid things from the world". Cui Tiankai also defended the Hong Kong national security law and denied that human rights abuses were taking place in Xinjiang.
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