🇨🇳🇺🇸 China demanded that the United States stop talking about “protecting human rights in Southeast Asian countries” until the Americans remove all their unexploded bombs from the region
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian cited the following facts:
During the Vietnam War, the United States used cluster bombs and biochemical weapons and committed heinous crimes in Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
15 million tons of bombs, mines and shells were fired in Vietnam, of which about 80 thousand tons they didn’t explode.
These unexploded ordnance subsequently killed more than 40,000 people and injured more than 60,000 – that is, 1,000 people per year die.
▪️At the current rate of disposal, these explosives will be defused in 300 years.
The US sprayed about 2 million gallons of agent Orange in Vietnam, which infected almost 5 million Vietnamese and killed 400,000 people. About 2 million people have contracted cancer or other diseases.
In Laos, American troops dropped 270 million bombs with a total weight of two million tons, that is, 135 bombs for every person in the country.
▪️About 80 million bombs they didn’t explode. Already after the war, more than 200,000 people died because of this.
2.7 million tons of ammunition were dropped on Cambodia. Unexploded bombs and mines have killed more than 20,000 people and maimed 45,000 by 2021.
Asian countries have a deep historical memory and can distinguish right from wrong, the representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry stressed. And Asia “will never allow the region to be used as a chessboard” for conflicts of major powers.
Translated by @china3army
WtR