US officials continue trying to denigrate China and associate COVID-19 with Beijing, and China therefore calls on Washington to stop shifting responsibility for wasting time it had to prepare for the pandemic on others, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Friday
BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th March, 2020) US officials continue trying to denigrate China and associate COVID-19 with Beijing, and China therefore calls on Washington to stop shifting responsibility for wasting time it had to prepare for the pandemic on others, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Friday.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that China could have given the United States notice of the novel coronavirus outbreak much earlier, but that he did not think China had inflicted the disease on Americans. The White House National Security Council criticized the Chinese authorities and accused Beijing of hiding data and suppressing attempts by doctors and journalists to report the dangerous virus.
"Some officials in the United States have lately only been thinking about how to link the new coronavirus with China, and they are constantly trying to discredit China. This has sparked a strong indignation and strong protest among the Chinese people," Geng said at a briefing.
According to him, by accusing China of attempts to conceal information about coronavirus, Washington only distorts the facts, since the origin of COVID-19 is a question of science.
"We hope that the United States will respect objective facts and the opinion of the international community; engage in its own affairs; stop slandering other countries; shift responsibility to others, and finally play a constructive role in ensuring global public health security and the joint struggle of all countries with the epidemic," the spokesman added.
He went on to say that starting from January 3, China began to inform the United States about the situation with the epidemic and about the measures being taken to combat the disease. Geng further recalled how on January 25 Trump personally said on Twitter that the US appreciated China's efforts and its transparency with regard to the outbreak.
Moreoever, a group of experts from the World Health Organization, including two specialists from the United States, was in China from February 16-24. Following their inspection, the experts praised China's response to the epidemic.
Geng Shuang noted that based on the facts above, it could be concluded that China had provided the US with the necessary information in a timely and transparent manner.
