US resolution on China civil airship 'nothing but malicious hype'

China's top legislature "strongly condemns and firmly opposes" a US House resolution which hyped up China's civil unmanned airship and "China threat" theory, the legislature's foreign affairs committee said on Thursday morning.

The resolution passed by the United States House of Representatives last week claiming that "China used a high-altitude surveillance balloon over US territory" and sensationalizing the "China threat" theory is "nothing but malicious hype and political manipulation", according to a statement by the National People's Congress Foreign Affairs Committee.

"China is a responsible country that has been strictly abiding by international law and respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, and has no intention of violating the territory and airspace of any sovereign country," the committee said.

The straying of a Chinese civilian unmanned airship into US airspace was purely accidental and was caused by force majeure, and it didn't pose any threat to US personnel or security interests, the statement said, underlining China's responsible response to the incident.

The Chinese side immediately briefed the US and the international community on the situation and asked the US side to properly handle the situation in a calm, professional and restrained manner, it said.

The committee said that the US side, however, insisted on using force and deliberately created a stir, which seriously violated the spirit of international law and international norms.

"Some politicians in the US Congress are utilizing the issue to fan the flames, fully exposing their sinister intention to contain China," it said. "In fact, it is the US that wantonly interferes in other countries' internal affairs, infringes on other countries' sovereignty and conducts extensive surveillance activities on other countries."

The statement emphasized in the end that building China-US relations featuring mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation serves the fundamental interests of the two peoples and is the common expectation of the international community.

"We strongly urge the US Congress to respect the facts, the spirit of international law and the basic principles of international relations, to immediately stop slandering and smearing China and to refrain from taking actions that could escalate situations," it said.