The Chinese Embassy in Argentina released a statement accusing the United States of interfering in commercial ties between Argentine companies and Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.
The communiqué, published late on Wednesday, followed reports that the U.S. Embassy in Argentina had warned directors of a private cooperative in Neuquén province that they could face visa restrictions if they went ahead with a planned deal with Huawei, a company Washington considers a national security risk.
The Chinese Embassy said its U.S. counterpart had “deliberately stoked the ‘China threat theory,’ expanded the concept of national security and, by revoking visas, blatantly prevented an Argentine company from engaging in normal cooperation with the Chinese company Huawei.”
It added that the move “fully reflects the arrogance and prejudice of the United States” and amounted to “a serious disregard for the sovereignty of other countries and a grave undermining of free-market principles,” a position China said it “firmly opposes.”
The embassy also challenged Washington’s longstanding rhetoric on democracy and individual freedoms.
