The U.S. should not see everyone as spies, said China’s Foreign Ministry after the United States terminated five cultural exchange programs funded by China, calling them “soft power propaganda tools.”

The programs ended by the U.S. State Department included the Policymakers Educational China Trip Program, the U.S.-China Friendship Program, the U.S.-China Leadership Exchange Program, and the U.S.-China Transpacific Exchange Program and the Hong Kong Educational and Cultural Program.

“They provide carefully curated access to Chinese Communist Party officials, not to the Chinese people, who do not enjoy freedoms of speech and assembly,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.

“The United States welcomes the reciprocal and fair exchange of cultural programs with PRC officials and the Chinese people, but one-way programs such as these are not mutually beneficial.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying responded by saying that some people in the U.S. only saw hatred, division and confrontation. The U.S. has for some time employed strong ideological bias and strategy to suppress China, including implementing extreme measures to cut normal exchanges between the two countries, harassing and persecuting scholars and harming cooperation in various fields, Hua said.

It was the policy of U.S. authorities to request for regional judicial departments to regularly report on Chinese “spying” and to prosecute at least once every year over issues related to China, Hua accused, and said such “guilty until proven innocent” attitude was ridiculous. The U.S. should be objective, fix its mistakes and not see everyone as spies, she added.

On Friday, Pompeo imposed immigration sanctions on Chinese officials who were engaged in what he described as coercive influence activities. In a separate speech at a Middle East security summit, he described the current stand-off between Washington and Beijing as “freedom versus tyranny,” and warned Middle Eastern countries they should not become vassal states of China.

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