Over 60 US universities attend a forum to attract Chinese students in Chengdu, Southwest China's Sichuan Province on March 23, 2018. Photo: VCG

China on Monday called on the US to stop making unjust charges on Chinese scholars and students, and not to disturb people-to-people exchanges between the two countries after prestigious cancer researcher Wu Xifeng was reportedly hounded from her job at the Anderson Cancer Center.

Some Americans and American institutions have been harassing Chinese scholars, students with ridiculous and rootless charges, such as espionage, and have created several "unjust and false" cases, Geng Shuang, spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, said at a routine press conference on Monday.

Such wrongdoings seriously hamper bilateral exchanges and cooperation, and more and more US universities and think tanks are challenging and criticizing such wrong behavior, Geng said. 

Scientific development requires international cooperation, while people-to-people exchanges have become an inevitable trend, Geng said, noting that it's extremely absurd to trying to contain China's development by enhancing scrutiny of people-to-people exchanges. 

Top leaders of the two countries have made important agreements on deepening bilateral exchanges when they met in Osaka, Japan in late June, said Geng.

China hopes the US side stops such a crackdown on cultural exchanges and meets the China side halfway in maintaining exchanges in culture and education, implements the leaders' agreements and builds a social basis for cooperative and stable bilateral relations, he said.