FBI Director Christopher Wray told the media on Sunday that the Five Eyes intelligence community regards China as the greatest espionage threat democracy has ever faced. The FBI chief's accusation, however, is not backed by facts; rather its goal is to smear China.

As Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said while answering a question on that at a regular news conference in Beijing on Monday, if any country or grouping poses a security threat to the world, it is the Five Eyes, which comprise the five English-speaking countries of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

At the same briefing, Mao Ning advised these countries to abandon the Cold War mentality and ideological bias, view China objectively, and stop smearing it. The advice, most likely, fell on deaf ears, as the Five Eyes countries regard themselves exceptional as leaders of the "democratic" and "developed" world.

That means they consider themselves the masters of democracy and development, and all the achievements the latecomers to industrial development such as China have made in the fields of economy, technology and industry must have been stolen from them by taking advantage of the loopholes in the rules they set.

What makes it more ridiculous is that they genuinely believe it and, as a result, they have been desperately trying to contain China's development and isolate it from the rest of the world even if it would destabilize the global economy given the Chinese economy's integration with the global economy.

China wants to help build a world order that is fair, just and equal in order to bust the Western myth that developing countries can only be followers of the rules set by the West. While China fulfills its global responsibilities by promoting common development, the leaders of the "democratic world" are not leaving any stone unturned to check China's rise.

China remains committed to safeguarding international security. The Five Eyes intelligence network, the largest in the world, has been habitually concocting and spreading disinformation about China. The FBI chief should know that. But he will not speak because the developed world has abused its technological prowess to indiscriminately spy on countries globally, including its allies.