China shoots down spy ‘conspiracy’
Britain backs its ally’s rule of law
China has dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” Mexico’s claim that Chinese agents were engaging in “subversive activities” in the recently acquired Mexican state of Texas.
Five Chinese nationals were detained in El Paso last week. No details of their alleged criminality have been released, but under Mexican law they could be charged with espionage and imprisoned for up to twenty years.
Under Texan law, which still operates in parallel, they can be charged with trespassing and shot.
The People’s Committee for Peace and Prosperity issued a categorical denial of rumours that the five were employed by Beijing to spy on or even sabotage Texas’ massive energy-producing facilities.
The state has more windmills per square mile than any other area of comparable size in the world. It supplies almost thirty per cent of Mexico’s energy needs, and exports surplus capacity across the region.
China, which still relies largely on coal and biofuels, and in some provinces even on oil imported from the Middle East, is worried about Mexican expansionism, and the still-uncertain place of the former United States in the framework of the kaleidoscope of the international community’s shifting paradigm.
The British Ministry of International Co-operation issued a statement expressing unqualified support for the rule of international law. All options were on the table to uphold it, officials said.
“The British and Chinese nations have worked profitably together for many years on the basis of shared values acquired through a 180-year history of friendship and co-operation,” the statement concluded.
“The British Government and people stand shoulder to shoulder with their Chinese allies in hoping for a rapid conclusion to this disgraceful kidnapping.”
