TEHRAN - China on Tuesday censured the assassination of Iran’s top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani in January 2020 as yet another “war crime” committed by the United States, Press TV reported.

General Soleimani’s assassination was “another example of how the U.S. has wantonly undermined the norms governing international relations based on the UN Charter,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a news briefing.

“It is also one of the war crimes the U.S. has committed with abuse of force,” added the Chinese official. “The U.S. could go as far as to perform 'targeted killing” of a sovereign state’s military leader through terrorist means in violation of international law, and also to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians around the world.”

Wang added, “All these illegal and brutal acts in the eyes of people around the world have been hidden by the U.S. behind the facade of ‘the rules-based international order’ as it claims.”

He said although the U.S. kept repeating the mantra of “upholding the rules-based international order,” it had been proven time and again that Washington only cared about the “rules that meet its needs and serve its interests.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman noted that the U.S. sought to consolidate its hegemony and overriding the international community.

“But such rules and order that violate international law will not be accepted by the people in Iran, the Middle East and the rest of the world,” he pointed out.