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China on Tuesday joined a war of words with the United States over letting whistleblower and former Central Intelligence Agency contractor Edward Snowden to leave Hong Kong saying that it is "unreasonable" for Washington to criticise the decision and make "groundless" accusations.
"It is unreasonable for the US government to question the Hong Kong Special Administration Region government's handling of the issue according to law", Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying said reacting to US assertions that Snowdon's incident will have negative consequences on the China-US ties.
"The US allegation against the Chinese government is groundless", Hu said. She also refuted the allegations that Edward Snowden, who stayed in Hong Kong for 34 days and left for Moscow after revealing details of US cyber attacks on China, could be a Chinese spy.
"These remarks are totally groundless and irresponsible", she said.
On criticism that Snowden chose the countries including China which have no internet freedom, Hua shot back saying that "it is surprising that people in US make such remarks. I advise them to look themselves in the mirror and focus on their own business".
She added, "Sound and steady development of bilateral relations serves the fundamental interests of the two countries and two people and conducive to the peace and development of Asia Pacific region and the world".
"I hope US works with China and earnestly implement consensus reached between the two leaders of the two countries and enhance dialogue and cooperation, control frictions and differences and for new progress in bilateral relations", she said.
Separately, state-run Xinhua news agency said both Beijing and Washington fully know that an isolated case should not be allowed to hurt one of the most critical relationships in the world.
"As many can see, the China-US relationship has made valuable progress after the latest leadership transitions in the two countries", it said recalling recent meeting between between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Barack Obama.
It is in the interest of both countries to keep the positive momentum in bilateral relations, it said.
"Back to the issue of cyber security, the Snowden case might not be a completely bad thing after all. Beijing and Washington can actually use the case to facilitate ongoing efforts to deal with the issue. The two sides can sit down and talk through their mutual suspicions", it said.
Image: A woman holds up a protest sign in CharterGarden, Central, Hong Kong at the start of the protest rally in support of Edward Snowden.
Photo courtesy: Jessica Hromas/Getty Images