China dismissed remarks made by some US senior officials on Monday as outright lies and fallacies fraught with ideological prejudice and the Cold War mentality, adding that the US' attempt to smear and attack China, is doomed to fail.

At the 2025 Central American Security Conference in Panama, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth hyped the "China threat" and made attacking remarks about the Chinese military and companies.

The US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, in a phone call with El Salvador's Foreign Minister Alexandra Hill, also stressed the need to prevent China from accessing El Salvador's critical infrastructure by only allowing trusted vendors.

"China-Latin America cooperation is South-South cooperation, based on mutual support without any geopolitical calculations," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian emphasized at a regular news conference.

Lin further noted that China's interactions with Latin American and Caribbean countries have always been guided by the principles of equality and mutual benefit, without seeking spheres of influence or targeting any third party.

He pointed out that the repeated smearing and attacks on China by the US, along with the continuous promotion of the "China threat" theory, are excuses to control Latin America and the Caribbean, however they are bound to fail.

"Who regards Latin America and the Caribbean as their 'backyard' and promotes 'neo-Monroeism'? Who interferes in the internal affairs of Latin American and Caribbean countries? Who uses tariffs as a 'big stick' to coerce Latin American and Caribbean countries? Who conducts global surveillance on a large scale? Who has military bases all over the western hemisphere? Who allows light weapons and ammunition to flow into peaceful regions in Latin America? The world sees this very clearly," Lin said.