China dismisses US allegations on COVID-19 outbreak

China has once again dismissed as disinformation allegations by the United States that Beijing covered up the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to reports, Chinese ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming warned Washington on Thursday not to continue with such unfounded accusations as a means to bully the Asian country.

“I hear quite a lot of this speculation, this disinformation about China covering up, about China hiding something - this is not true. The Chinese government was transparent and very quick to share data," said the Chinese envoy.

Liu's comments came just a day after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo renewed Washington's cover-up allegation against Beijing, accusing the Chinese government of failing to report the outbreak in a timely fashion, not sharing all the information it had about the new coronavirus, including its ability of human-to-human transmission.

The White House has been seeking to deflect criticism of its own sluggish response to the coronavirus crisis by putting too much emphasis on the virus’s origins in China, with Trump and other US officials, including Pompeo, referring to the virus as the “Chinese virus.”

“Some other country - their local courts sued China - it is absurd,” Liu said, adding, “Some politicians, some people, want to play at being the world’s policeman - this is not the era of gunboat diplomacy, this is not the era when China was a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society.”

He was apparently refereeing, among others, to some American lawyers who had last week launched a legal action in the US to sue Beijing for trillions of dollars over the COVID-19 pandemic, accusing the Chinese government of purported negligence for allowing the contagious disease to erupt and then covering it up.

“These people still live in the old days - they think they can bully China, think they can bully the world,” Liu said, stressing, “China is not an enemy of the United States - if they regard China as an enemy they chose the wrong target.”

The COVID-19 disease, caused by a new coronavirus, was transmitted from wildlife to people in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. It has affected 210 countries and territories across the globe and has so far infected more than 2,670,020 people and killed over 186,390.

China to give WHO $30 million more after US halts funds

Separately on Thursday, China announced that it would give another $30 million to the World Health Organization (WHO) to help with the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic, days after Washington said it would freeze funding.

Washington, which is the WHO's biggest contributor, accused the organization last week of "mismanaging" the COVID-19 crisis, drawing ire from Beijing as both countries spar over the deadly virus.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang said the new donation would be in addition to a previous $20 million committed, and would help "strengthen developing countries' health systems".

He added that China's contribution to the UN agency "reflects the support and trust of the Chinese government and people for the WHO."

In announcing the funding freeze last week, US President Donald Trump accused the WHO of covering up the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak in China before it spread.

Beijing has urged the US to support WHO-led international action against the pandemic after it halted funding, while observers warned that the US freeze would have consequences for the WHO's other disease control programmes around the world.

China defends WHO

China has rejected Western suggestions that it covered up the extent of the virus outbreak, rejecting claims it has an overly cozy relationship with the WHO as well.

"Supporting the WHO at this critical time in the global fight against the epidemic is defending the ideals and principles of multilateralism and upholding the status and authority of the United Nations," Geng said.

Numbers in China have dwindled as it begins to cautiously lift virus control measures, although fears remain over a potential resurgence and imported infections from abroad.

SS