ISTANBUL

China on Wednesday urged the US to end its restrictions on Cuba and remove Havana from the “state sponsors of terrorism" list.

Allegations of “forced labor” have become “an excuse and a tool” for the US to “suppress dissenting voices,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a news conference in Beijing, expressing China’s opposition to “coercive diplomacy.”

The US expanded visa restrictions against Cuba on Feb. 25, citing Cuba's overseas medical services as being suspected of "forced labor linked to the Cuban labor export program."

"Cuba’s labor export programs, which include the medical missions, enrich the Cuban regime, and in the case of Cuba’s overseas medical missions, deprive ordinary Cubans of the medical care they desperately need in their home country," said a statement from the US secretary of state at the time.

Ning said the new measures taken by the US “represent a continuation and intensification of the six-decade-long blockade and sanctions against Cuba.”

The spokeswoman additionally urged Washington to take concrete actions to improve US-Cuba relations, and sincerely contribute to Caribbean nations' development.

Ning noted that Cuba has sent more than 600,000 medical professionals to over 60 countries worldwide over the last six decades, providing medical services to over 230 million people and potentially saving more than 12 million lives.

She added: "Cuba's overseas medical cooperation has been widely welcomed by Caribbean governments and peoples."