Chinese officials need to stop airing “outlandish” anti-American conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in the latest U.S. rebuke of Chinese diplomats.
“Secretary Pompeo conveyed strong U.S. objections to PRC efforts to shift blame for COVID-19 to the United States,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in summarizing Pompeo’s call with Chinese Foreign Affairs Director Yang Jiechi. “The Secretary stressed that this is not the time to spread disinformation and outlandish rumors but rather a time for all nations to come together to fight this common threat.”
Pompeo’s phone call amplifies the rebuke delivered on Friday, when the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. was summoned to the State Department for a tongue-lashing over Chinese allegations that the U.S. Army started the coronavirus outbreak in China. Beijing has launched a widespread effort to cast doubt on the idea that the outbreak originated in mainland China after facing months of criticism from its own citizens for censoring reports about the virus when it first emerged.
“As to the origin of the virus … we should wait for findings of the science community,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters Monday. “Considering all this, jumping to conclusions won’t help any country and will only cause panic and discrimination.”
Chinese officials, while insisting that “China has acted in an open, transparent, and responsible manner,” have tried to brand the coronavirus an American phenomenon and criticize President Trump’s response to the crisis. That dynamic was on display Monday in a briefing with the World Health Organization, when a Chinese state-run media organization asked officials how proposed cuts in U.S. contributions to WHO “would help combat” the coronavirus outbreak and “how the U.S. has contributed [to] the global response” to the pandemic thus far.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus replied that the recent response from the U.S. has been “really encouraging” before making a broader comment.
“I would like to use this opportunity, because you have identified the U.S. specifically, use this opportunity to thank the U.S. government as a government, the private sector, and all global citizens for their commitment,” he said. “We’re all in this together. It’s a common enemy, and it’s our unity that will break this virus.”
