After Trump's attack, China says US shirking responsibility & diverting public attention over coronavirus

After US President Donald Trump said he may seek damages from China over the coronavirus outbreak, China's foreign ministry hit back saying, "American politicians have repeatedly ignored the truth and have been telling barefaced lies".

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"They have only one objective: shirk their responsibility for their own poor epidemic prevention and control measures, and divert public attention," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said, adding that,"US politicians should reflect on their own problems and find ways to contain the outbreak as quickly as possible".

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Trump had earlier said that he wasn't happy with China while asserting that that "it could have been stopped at the source."

"It could have been stopped quickly and it wouldn't have spread all over the world," he said.

"There are a lot of ways you can hold them accountable," Trump said. "We're doing some very serious investigations as you probably know."

Several nations including Germany, Australia, the UK have called an independent probe into the outbreak, a case pushed by the Trump administration widely in recent weeks.

However, China has remained reticent to the idea. The US and China have been at loggerhead over the virus Trump repeatedly referring to COVID-19 as "the Chinese virus" when discussing the COVID-19 outbreak.

China had hit back last month over Trump's assertion by suggesting that the virus may have been spread by the US military which brought the virus to Wuhan.

"(We) hope that other countries can work with China to do more things that are conducive to international cooperation and mutual trust, rather than just saying one thing and doing another," Geng added.