China has issued a lengthy rebuttal of what it said were 24 “preposterous allegations” by some leading US politicians over its handling of the new coronavirus outbreak.
A 30-page, 11,000-word article posted on the ministry website on Saturday night repeated and expanded on the refutations made during the press briefings.
“Secretary Pompeo, State Department Spokesperson and others seemed to be busy taking interviews lately, where they continued unwarranted attacks against China on COVID-19, accusing China of not acting fast enough or providing accurate data, and calling for investigations to hold it accountable. We’ve repeatedly stated our position on these. However, since the US kept repeating these lies, we must strive to help the world see the truth through facts time and again,” foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a press briefing.
Talking about the allegations, she said, “They claimed China didn’t act fast enough. China is among the first countries hit by Covid-19. We have repeatedly shared the timeline of China’s response… they questioned the factuality of China’s numbers. People in their right mind will not assert blindly that other people are lying just because others’ numbers look better than their own. This is not children playing make-believe.”
The spokesperson further sharpened the attack on the US, saying it did not act fast enough.
“They questioned the factuality of China’s numbers. People in their right mind will not assert blindly that other people are lying just because others’ numbers look better than their own. This is not children playing make-believe,” said Hua.
The Chinese foreign ministry has dedicated most of its press briefings over the past week to rejecting accusations by US politicians, especially Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, that China had withheld information about the new coronavirus and that it had originated in a laboratory in the city of Wuhan.
“They talked about accountability and compensations. As was mentioned just now, survey results from Singapore show the Chinese people giving their government the highest rating for its response to Covid-19,” said China’s foreign ministry spokesperson.
The article on the website of China’s foreign ministry also cited media reports that said Americans had been infected with the virus before the first case was confirmed in Wuhan. There is no evidence to suggest that is the case.
Keen to quash US suggestions that the virus was deliberately created or somehow leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the article said that all evidence shows the virus is not man-made and that the institute is not capable of synthesising a new coronavirus.