BEIJING, June 24 -- A spokesperson of China’s Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday criticized the United States’ slanderous nonsense on China-related intellectual property issues and its visa restrictions on Chinese students and researchers.

Following the US banning some Chinese students and scholars from entering the country early this month, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a press statement that the US “will not tolerate China’s attempts to illicitly acquire American technology and intellectual property from the US’ academic institutions and research facilities for Chinese military ends.”

“The slanderous nonsense from the US is nothing but another bout of persecution mania,” said Chinese Defense Spokesperson Senior Colonel Wu Qian at a regular press conference when being asked to comment on the slander. China has always followed a path of independent scientific research and has made remarkable achievements in a range of high-tech fields, which is a fact widely acknowledged by the international community, he refuted.

Speaking of the visa restrictions, Wu said that it violates the lawful rights and interests of Chinese students and researchers. The move, which harms others without benefit to the US itself, seriously disrupts technological and cultural exchanges between China and the US, and damages people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, said Wu.

Wu urged the US administration to view China’s development from an objective and rational perspective, introspect about its own problems, and refrain from going down the wrong path any further.