Video of China Saying Era of U.S. Acting Without Restraint 'Is Over' Viewed 1M Times

China heavily criticized the United States this week and called for an investigation into war crimes after the Pentagon said no officials would be disciplined over the mistaken drone strike that killed 10 Afghan civilians in August.

"The atrocity of American troops killing civilians in Afghanistan is unacceptable. It is all the more outrageous that the United States exonerates the perpetrators with impunity on various grounds," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday. He was highly critical of the Defense Department's announcement a day earlier, coming shortly after President Joe Biden hosted the Summit for Democracy at the White House.

"We condemn the brutal military intervention by the U.S. in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria in the name of 'democracy' and 'human rights,'" he continued. "We call on the international community to investigate the U.S. military and hold it accountable for the war crimes of killing innocent civilians around the world."

Wang said: "Justice may be delayed, but it will not be denied. The era in which the U.S. acts arbitrarily across the world under the pretext of so-called 'democracy' and 'human rights' is over. The day of reckoning will eventually come for the U.S. military for its killing of innocent civilians in many countries."

The spokesperson's office shared the lengthy response as a video on Twitter, where it had been viewed about 1.4 million times at the time of publication. The Pentagon's decision—met with disbelief by many in the U.S. and abroad—is likely to re-emerge in the coming months and years as China uses it to oppose American military deployments in Europe, Asia and elsewhere.

The August 29 drone strike that killed 37-year-old aid worker Zemerai Ahmadi and nine others, including three children, happened in the frantic final days of the U.S.-led evacuation of Kabul after the Taliban seized large parts of Afghanistan. Just three days earlier, a suicide bombing at Kabul airport claimed the lives of 13 American service members and 169 Afghan civilians.

Before approving the drone-launched missile that exploded inside a crowded residential compound, U.S. officials said they had received intelligence suggesting an individual—later identified as Ahmadi—and others were preparing an Islamic State attack targeting evacuation efforts at Afghanistan's capital airport.

In November, a report by Lt. Gen. Sami Said, inspector general for the U.S. Air Force, said the strike was regrettable and "an honest mistake." Said put forward suggested procedures for future drone operations but didn't recommend further action against those involved in the August strike.

No Disciplinary Action

Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby told a briefing on Monday that a subsequent high-level review by Gen. Kenneth McKenzie Jr. and Gen. Richard Clarke, head of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command, respectively, agreed with Said's assessment, including that of no further disciplinary action.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin approved the recommendations based on the findings, Kirby said. "What we saw here was a breakdown in process and execution in procedural events, not the result of negligence, not the result of misconduct, not the result of poor leadership," said the DOD spokesperson.

The U.S. has committed to compensating the family of Zemerai Ahmadi and relocating its members out of Afghanistan, but it was still unclear as of this week when those promises could be fulfilled.