China yesterday demanded an immediate end to the NATO bombing in Yugoslavia, and accused the foreign media of demonising Yugoslavia to cloak expansionism by Western powers.
"This war must end," the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Zhu Bangzao, told journalists in Beijing. "NATO bombing has killed more than 1,200 innocent civilians and undermined peace and stability in the region, resulting in the greatest human catastrophe since the end of the second World War."
The People's Daily, organ of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, compared the Western media's coverage of Yugoslavia to reports of China's abuse of human rights in Tibet, which Beijing denies. What the West "calls media freedom is actually hegemonism and the most important tool of power politics," it said. "The basis of Western media is to first demonise their opponents and then cloak hegemonism and armed infringement in legality."
The Chinese press has consistently ignored reports of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. The English-language China Daily on Monday reported UN Human Rights Commissioner Mrs Mary Robinson's condemnation of the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade on May 7th and of civilian casualties caused by NATO, but left out her most severe censure, that of President Slobodan Milosevic over the forced removal and killings and rapes of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.
Asked if the virulent anti-Western tone of the official media since the embassy bombing reflected government views, Mr Zhu said: "Newspapers in China have the right to air their own views. From the perspective of the Foreign Ministry we have always attached importance to Sino-US relations."
He added: "The bombing undermined Sino-US relations. We have noticed that President Bill Clinton again apologised during a phone conversation with President Jiang Zemin. But the most urgent task is for US-led NATO to conduct a complete, comprehensive and fair investigation into the incident and publish the results as soon as possible."
Workers cleaning up the battered US embassy in Beijing yesterday, and the nearby visa section, found the grounds and front rooms stinking of urine and faeces thrown in plastic bottles during attacks on the building last weekend, American diplomats said last night. Many computer monitors, pictures and lamps were smashed by stones thrown through the windows in protests against the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The US embassy is expected to reopen for business on Monday.