China today attempted to deflect international criticism over the kidnapping and torture of a Hong Kong bookseller by Chinese police for eight months by mounting a sharp attack on CIA's brutal interrogation techniques in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks.
The US which "profile itself as a champion of pointing fingers at other countries record, should reflect on itself and address its own violation of human rights," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters.
She was replying to a question on CIA's release of 50 declassified documents detailing the brutal interrogation techniques used on terrorist suspects after the 2001 attacks.
When asked about the allegations by Lam Wing-kee that he was kidnapped and tortured for eight months by Chinese agents for selling books critical of the ruling Communist Party, Hua sought to parry questions saying media should contact "relevant authorities" for details.
"To be honest, I am shocked by those details. We believe that relevant parties should honour Geneva conventions and other international conventions and protect basic rights of prisoners," she said.
Pressed further, she said Lam is a Chinese citizen and violated Chinese law in mainland.
"Therefore law enforcement authorities have right to deal with relevant case in accordance with law," Hua said.
Lam is one of five Hong Kong booksellers who published gossipy titles - banned in mainland - about leading Chinese politicians. He narrated his eight-month-long mental torture and that he was blindfolded and handcuffed by a special task force while crossing the border to Shenzhen in October.
Breaking his silence, Lam yesterday said he was speaking because his case concerned the "freedom of expression of Hong Kong people."
"This is not just about me. This is about the freedom of Hong Kong people. The Chinese government has forced Hong Kong people into a dead end," Lam was quoted by the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post today.
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Commenting on the UUV seizure by China, analysts said it reflects the new competition between Beijing and Washington in the area and an aggressive signal by China to show that is ready to act.
"It's not the first time that the US deployed a drone in the South China Sea area, but it's the first time the Chinese military seized it. There must be a reason for it... It could have threatened the interests of China's islands, or China's ships and submarines. It must have been damage to Chinese interests that caused the seizure," Zhao Xiaozhuo, the director and a senior colonel at the Centre on China-America Defence Relations at the Academy of Military Science, a PLA think-tank told Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.
"China has been very restrained about the military intervention from the US. They have been on the edges of Chinese territories all the time. This time the Chinese military took action. It must be because of some actions taken by the US side," he said.
Zhao said both sides would probably resolve the issue through negotiation.
"China wants to send out a signal that if you spy on us underwater and threaten our national security, we have measures to deal with it," said Wu Shicun, president of the Chinese government-affiliated National Institute for South China Sea Studies.
"On the South China Sea issue, we took in humiliations with a humble view in the past. I think that era has finished now," it said.
