Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi
Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi
The spat over the COVID-19 outbreak has heightened longstanding tension between Washington and Beijing. China's foreign minister says the Trump administration has fabricated too many lies about the Asian powerhouse.

Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi said on Sunday that China and the US would benefit more from cooperation and a peaceful co-existence than hostility and confrontation.

At his annual news conference, the Chinese foreign minister urged the US to stop wasting time and start coordination on macro policies for their respective economies as well as the global economy. Wang said that China was prepared to work together with the US in the spirit of mutual respect and interconnectedness.

However, the diplomat also made several jabs at Washington, telling reporters that Trump's administration is tarnishing relations with Beijing with what it calls a smear campaign.

"Aside from the devastation caused by the novel coronavirus, there is also a political virus spreading through the US," Wang said. "This political virus is the use of every opportunity to attack and smear China. Some politicians completely disregard basic facts and have fabricated too many lies targeting China, and plotted too many conspiracies," he added.

'New Cold War'

Longstanding tensions between the administrations of US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have worsened in recent weeks over the coronavirus pandemic and China's recent proposal for imposing new security legislation in Hong Kong, which Wang said should be imposed "without the slightest delay."

The unresolved US-China trade spat and Washington's support for Taiwan had already weakened cooperation between the two.

"It has come to our attention that some political forces in the US are taking China-US relations hostage and pushing our two countries to the brink of a new Cold War," the French news agency quoted Wang as saying. The diplomat did not identify what "forces" he was referring to.

China 'open' to international effort to uncover virus source

Both Trump and US and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have accused China of a lack of transparency over the outbreak, and repeatedly said the virus was leaked from a Wuhan laboratory, an accusation China vehemently denies.

In recent weeks, the US and Australia have called for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.

During the conference, Wang criticized efforts by US politicians to "fabricate rumors" about COVID-19's origins to "stigmatize China."

Most members of the scientific community, however, believe the virus jumped from animals to humans, possibly from a Wuhan market selling a range of exotic animals that ordinarily would not come in contact with one another.

The World Health Organization has called on Beijing to invite them in to probe the pathogen's source.

"China is open to working with the international scientific community to look into the source of the virus," Wang said. "Fairness means the process be free of political interference, respect the sovereignty of all countries, and oppose any presumption of guilt."

mvb/mm (AFP, Reuters, dpa)