China urges US to end groundless interrogations of Chinese personnel

Beijing urged Washington on Monday to stop the groundless interrogation of personnel from Chinese companies and to uphold the common understandings reached by the Chinese and United States' presidents during their meeting in Busan last October.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian made the remarks at a regular news conference, in response to reports that some Chinese company personnel were wrongfully interrogated and detained for close to 60 hours upon entering the US recently, before being deported.

"Recently, US law enforcement authorities have repeatedly interrogated and detained personnel from Chinese companies for a extended periods before deporting them, without any just cause," Lin said.

Such harsh law enforcement moves infringed on the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of the Chinese nationals concerned, disrupted normal business cooperation between the two countries and soured the atmosphere for people-to-people exchanges, Lin said.

"More importantly, they violated the common understandings reached between the two presidents in Busan on strengthening economic and trade cooperation," he said, adding that China "deplores and strongly opposes" such moves.

The US should take China's concerns seriously, and US law enforcement authorities should stop the groundless interrogation of personnel from Chinese companies, he said.

"China will continue to take resolute measures to firmly protect the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese nationals," Lin said.