Beijing: China on Thursday termed as slanderous the US accusation that hackers backed by Beijing may be attempting to steal COVID-19 related research and vaccine materials and said that “smearing and scapegoating” others will not make the deadly virus go away.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian also rebutted US National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien’s charge that five plagues came out China in the last 20 years, saying US officials are shifting the blame on Beijing as they struggled to handle the coronavirus pandemic back home.
The US claims have added fuel tensions between the two nations, which are engaged in a war of words over the origin of the coronavirus that has killed 300,000 people globally. China deplores and firmly opposes such slanderous actions,” Zhao said. (PTI)