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Ambassador says kickoff of American election campaign sparked US verbal attacks on China

According to the diplomat, Washington's accusative rhetoric is dictated by the economic interest of ousting China from the world market as a growing rival

BEIJING, May 8. /TASS/. Accusations that some American politicians hurled against China over the coronavirus pandemic stem from the beginning of the election race in the United States and the interests of certain political groups, Russian Ambassador to China Andrey Denisov told Russian journalists on Friday.

"Let’s just say that factors such as political assessments and economic interests are intertwined here. We see, and it’s quite obvious, that many, say, verbal attacks against China, primarily from the United States and some of its allies, are prompted not only by an attempt to portray themselves as political arbitrators who assume the right to provide assessments. They are also prompted by specific economic interests, attempts to oust China from the world market as a growing rival. In fact, no one is hiding that," he explained.

"We also realize that the election cycle has actually begun in the United States of America, which means that it has its own very specific interests, where there is no room for fair assessments and where purely political considerations prevail," the diplomat emphasized.

He noted though that many US allies did not go that far in evaluating the activities of the World Health Organization. "Of course, this is a threat to all of humanity, which means that we must deal with what has happened instead of using that as a political weapon," he stressed.

According to Denisov, Russia sides with China on this matter. "We understand that the barrage of criticism against it stems from vested interests, which are a far cry from justice," he said.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier said that Washington had evidence that the current coronavirus had begun to spread from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. US President Donald Trump, answering questions from reporters at the White House, pointed out that the novel coronavirus could have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology due to staff incompetence.