Pompeo's anti-China measures condemned

China condemned United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday for his "malicious attacks "on China's political system as well as further restrictions on bilateral people-to-people exchanges.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a regular news briefing that China will continue to take necessary measures to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests.

Pompeo announced on Friday that he had imposed visa restrictions on officials of the Communist Party of China or any individual taking part in publicity or campaigns linked to the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee.

He also announced the ending of five cultural exchange programs with China, claiming that these were fully paid for and operated by the Chinese government.

The restrictions are the latest anti-China measures taken by Washington amid worsening bilateral ties.

Some anti-China forces in the US are sticking to a Cold War mentality and are attempting to stir up ideological confrontation between Beijing and Washington to further damage bilateral ties, Hua said. She added that such moves totally go against the fundamental interests of the two peoples, and will be a wasted effort.

Also at the briefing, Hua urged the US to stop politicizing trade issues and stop abusing national power to suppress foreign companies. That followed reports saying financial index provider FTSE Russell would remove the shares of video security firm Hikvision and seven other Chinese companies from certain products after a US order restricted purchases of their shares.

US President Donald Trump issued an executive order last month prohibiting US investment in Chinese companies that Washington claims are owned or controlled by the Chinese military. On Thursday, the Trump administration added another four companies to the blacklist.

Excluding individual companies from some international indexes will not prevent international investors from investing in those companies by other means, Hua said.

The Chinese government will continue to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies, she said.