China urged the United States on Friday to stop political manipulation and abusing judicial power to harass and suppress Chinese students and researchers in the US, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens in its territory.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin made the remarks as a recent report by Johns Hopkins University showed that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation has encouraged each of the 94 US attorney districts to investigate China-related cases since the Department of Justice launched the so-called China Initiative in 2018 to address China's challenge to US technological and scientific leadership.

The report has revealed the truth that the so-called China Initiative is purely politically manipulated, and is an example of the resurgence of McCarthyism in the US, Wang said at a regular news conference.

It is not based on facts, but on political interests and presumption of guilt that they made the investigations, he said, asking, is this the rule of law the US has proclaimed?

"When being anti-China has become a target and task that must be completed, it is no wonder that so many of the so-called espionage and other crimes have been imposed on relevant Chinese personnel and institutions," he said.

China urges the US to abandon a Cold War mentality, and stop disrupting and damaging normal technological and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, he said.