By Staff, Agencies

Beijing condemned American politicians for shifting blame for the crisis squarely onto China’s shoulders, calling on Washington to address the concerns of its own citizens about the US response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Asked to comment on a series of American media reports on the US government’s slow and often inept response to the health crisis on Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang relayed some of the questions raised by the reporters, asking whether Washington may have swept information about the virus under the rug.

“Recently there have been many voices in the United States that question and worry about whether the US government has responded to the epidemic in a timely and effective manner,” Geng said, adding his hopes that the US would soon answer their questions.

His comments come as US officials and lawmakers step up a rhetorical assault on Beijing, with both major parties issuing talking points to members instructing them to shift public discussion about the virus to attacks on China.

US President Donald Trump has also taken to slamming Beijing in recent weeks, increasingly accusing the country of “covering up” its coronavirus outbreak with help from the World Health Organization [WHO], while also refusing to dismiss rumors that the pathogen may have escaped from a Chinese laboratory.

Insisting that any effort to pin responsibility on his country would fail, Geng said both the US and China had been “victims” of the virus, dubbing it a “common enemy of mankind.”