BEIJING, March 17. /TASS/. China’s Xinhua news agency accused the US Tuesday of racism and irresponsibility, and using the pandemic as a political weapon to smear the People’s Republic of China.
"With the whole international community gearing up for the joint battle against a dangerous coronavirus, the sole superpower on the planet is letting the world down," the agency’s commentary reads. "Ever since the onset of the COVID-19 epidemic, a cluster of U.S. politicians have kept using the global health threat as a weapon to smear and stigmatize China."
"They accused Beijing of covering up the outbreak, turning a blind eye to its timely sharing of information with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the broader international community," the agency says.
The US politicians, the op-ed underscores, "went so far by employing racist language to label the pathogen behind the disease the ‘Chinese virus’ or ‘Wuhan virus,’ although its origin remains undetermined and viruses have no nationalities."
Such "slanderous" rhetoric, Xinhua writes, "is irresponsible and despicable."
"To many, it is yet another symptom of Washington's moral decay and leadership deficit," the commentary added.
"Stigmatizing China will not contribute to the global battle against the pandemic. On the contrary, at a time when the world is in dire need of strong solidarity and mutual support, it only sows division and distrust and corrodes the very foundation for a global united front," it says.
" Thus it is high time that Washington woke up both to the threat of the coronavirus spreading on its soil and across the world, and to the threat of the political virus in its mind that is distorting its perception and hindering its response, and lived up to its due responsibility on the world stage," the Chinese agency concludes.