America’s "loose management" of firearms is creating a "recurring nightmare" of domestic gun violence that is now spilling into other countries as U.S.-made weapons and ammunition are increasingly finding their way into the wrong hands, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday.
Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the ministry, lamented that at a United Nations meeting last week, the U.S. opposed a Chinese proposal to block transfers of ammunition to non-state actors. He then argued that America’s tolerance for guns is creating violence around the globe.
"Gun violence has become a recurring nightmare for the American people," Wang said. The U.S.’s loose management of small arms and light weapons and ammunition, massive weapons export and persistent transfer of military articles to non-state actors are equally worrying."
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"A lot of the ammunition from the U.S. have become untraceable and even ended up in the hands of terrorist and extremist groups, posing a grave threat to regional and international peace and stability," he added.
Wang said gun violence is increasingly America’s main export to the world.
"The U.S. brings to other countries not democracy or progress of human rights but livelihood woes and instability," he said. "The U.S. needs to know that the more it engages in such exports, the worse the backfire will be on the U.S. itself."
Wang added that violent elements in Mexico, Pakistan and elsewhere have been "found to use U.S. weapons" and noted a Center for American Progress study said more than 50,000 guns originating in the U.S. were recovered in 15 criminal investigations between 2014 and 2016.
His remarks came several days after a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, at which China said it is worried that U.S. exports of arms to Ukraine are raising the risk of "strategic miscalculation and escalation of hostilities" because they might be misdirected to "terrorists and armed groups."
The U.S. rejected that assessment at the meeting and dismissed the "victim-blaming notion that Ukraine’s self-defense is the obstacle to ending this war."
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But Wang on Thursday repeated that there's a likelihood U.S. weapons sent to Ukraine will be "smuggled by international criminal groups into the hands of criminals in Europe and elsewhere."
"Both Interpol and Europol have warned about this," he said. "An African leader once said that the raging war in Ukraine is now a major source of weapons that bolster the ranks of the terrorists in Lake Chad Region."
While President Biden supports domestic gun control efforts, he has also supported billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded that country a year ago. This week, Biden promised another $500 million in weapons and ammunition to Ukraine.
