On Friday, the U.S. State Department called China's ambassador to the United States to protest Beijing's suggestion that the U.S. military might bring the coronavirus to Wuhan as tensions between the two major global powers escalated.
State Department officials said David Stillwell, the top U.S. diplomat in East Asia, had made a very "stern statement" to Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai, adding that Beijing's special envoy was "very defensive.".
The State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said China was trying to shift criticism of its role in "triggering a global pandemic rather than spreading it to the world.".
"Spreading conspiracy theories is dangerous and absurd. We hope to draw the attention of the government that we will not tolerate the government for the benefit of the Chinese people and the world. "
"The Chinese Communist Party has chosen to publish false and absurd conspiracy theories about the origin of covid-19 in the United States," Defense Ministry spokesman Alyssa Farah wrote on twitter on Friday. #ChinaPropaganda”
The virus, also known as covid-19, has infected 138000 people worldwide and killed more than 5000 people.
The Chinese embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
Despite signs of tension, US President Donald Trump praised Beijing's "data sharing" on Friday.
When Trump was asked by reporters at China's White House press conference that some Chinese officials were offering "strange narration", Trump seemed to avoid any worries, saying he had read an article on the subject, but he did not think it represented his discussion with China's president Xi Jinping.
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