At UN, China accuses US of trying to take world back to 'jungle age'

China has accused the United States of "fabricating lies" and trying to take the world back to the "jungle age" after Washington blamed Beijing and UN agencies for "the murder of millions of baby girls."

Long-simmering tensions between the United States and China have hit the boiling point at the United Nations over the coronavirus pandemic, spotlighting Beijing's bid for greater multilateral influence in a challenge to Washington's traditional leadership.

To this end, US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made the remarks at a UN General Assembly meeting on Thursday on the anniversary of a landmark 1995 women's conference.

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DeVos and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who issued a statement on Thursday, both accused China of subjecting Uighurs and other minorities to forced abortion, forced sterilisation, and involuntary implantation of birth control devices.

A spokesperson for China's UN mission in New York said in a statement that the remarks were "sheer fabrication."

"Some US politicians lie and cheat as a habit," the spokesperson said.

"They maliciously create political confrontation and undermine multilateral cooperation. The United States, going against the trend of the times, is becoming the biggest destroyer of the existing international order and trying all means to take the world back to the 'jungle age'."

US President Donald Trump's administration cut funding in 2017 for UNFPA, saying it "supports a programme of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilisation."

The United Nations said that was an inaccurate perception.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Friday, in response, said it regretted the accusations by DeVos.

UNFPA Executive Director Natalia Kanem told reporters that any coercion of women was against their practice and policy.