BEIJING, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- China urges the United States to immediately stop the blockade and sanctions on Cuba in any name and do more things that help improve relations with Cuba and promote regional peace and stability, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said here Friday.

It was reported that recently, the U.S. State Department announced visa restrictions on officials and their family members from African countries, Brazil, Cuba, Grenada, and former officials and their family members of Pan American Health Organization involved in the Cuban government's overseas medical missions. It stated that the United States is committed to ending Cuba's overseas medical missions as an exploitative behavior of forced labor, warning countries cooperating with Cuba to "think twice."

In response, spokesperson Mao Ning told a daily news briefing that according to statistics of the government of Cuba, during the past 60-plus years, Cuba sent over 600,000 medical personnel to over 60 countries, provided medical services for over 230 million people and performed over 17 million operations and surgeries, which saved the lives of more than 12 million people.

Cuba's overseas medical cooperation plays an important role in the health systems of Latin American and Caribbean countries as well as African countries, and is welcomed by the governments and peoples of the relevant countries, Mao said.

She said the so-called "forced labor" has become a false pretext and tool of hegemony for the United States to suppress other countries, and relevant measures of the United States is an extension and escalation of its over 60 years of unpopular sanctions and blockade on Cuba. ■