U.S. urged to further facilitate exchanges

Beijing has called on Washington to "further introduce more convenience for facilitating people-to-people exchanges between the two countries", in the latest response to the United States' recent updating of its travel alert on China.

The U.S. State Department on Wednesday changed its travel advisory for China to a Level 2 "exercise increased caution", which is down from a Level 3 "reconsider travel".

The updated advisory also removed the "D" notation, by which the State Department indicates its concern about a risk of wrongful detention for U.S. nationals, and it removed language in the advisory related to wrongful detention.

"China has taken notice of this adjustment made by the U.S. side and believes that this is conducive to the regular exchange of visits between the two countries," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a daily news conference in Beijing on Thursday.

China has always been opposed to deliberately creating "chilling effects" in this regard, Mao said.

In another development, U.S. media reported that each of the two countries recently released nationals of the other country whom they were holding, and three U.S. citizens have returned to the U.S.

Washington also released some details of the cases involving the three released Chinese nationals.

When asked about this development, the Chinese spokeswoman said, "Through the unremitting efforts of the Chinese government, the three Chinese citizens who were wrongfully detained by the U.S. side have returned to their homeland safely.

"This once again shows that China will never give up on its compatriots at any time and that the motherland will always be a strong backing for them," she said.

Mao emphasized that China has always firmly opposed the U.S. suppression and persecution of Chinese citizens for political purposes.

The country will always take necessary measures to steadfastly safeguard the legitimate and lawful rights and interests of Chinese citizens, she added.

At the briefing, Mao also confirmed that a Chinese fugitive who had been at large in the U.S. for many years had been repatriated to China.

This shows that justice covers everywhere and no place can ever be a safe haven for criminals, she said.

"The Chinese government will continue pursuing fugitives and retrieving ill-gotten assets, and the pursuits will leave no exceptions and will be unremitting," she added.