Beijing, China on Tuesday hit out at US President Donald Trump, who had called coronavirus a “Chinese” disease, and termed it an attempt at stigmatising the country.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang urged “the US to correct its mistake and stop its groundless accusations against China”.
Trump had, in a tweet on Monday about his interaction with Governors on stopping coronavirus, termed the disease a “Chinese virus”.
Xinhua termed Trump’s language was “racist and xenophobic”, revealed “politicians’ irresponsibility and incompetence”, and risked increasing fears over the virus.
However, the American President is not the first US figure to label coronavirus “Chinese”, with many officials of his administration doing so and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling it the “Wuhan virus” as its first cases were recorded in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.
However, last week a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman shared a conspiracy theory, alleging the US Army had brought it to the region.
This lead to Pompeo demanding China stop spreading “disinformation” and trying “to shift blame” for the outbreak.
Trump’s tweet has also evoked criticism in the US, with New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio saying the phrase risked “fuelling more bigotry” against Asian-Americans.