US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Wednesday lashed out at China for making "empty promises" during last week's China-Africa summit, saying Chinese President Xi Jinping "failed to promise real transparency and accountability" for Beijing's role in the spread of coronavirus.
Referring to an earlier statement by Xi Jinping, he said that Chinese President was not "putting lives front and centre" when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) "hid the truth" about COVID-19 from the world until it was too late.
"At last week's China-Africa Summit, we, unfortunately, saw more empty promises and tired platitudes from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)," Pompeo said.
"While President Xi said "we must always put our people and their lives front and centre. He failed to promise real transparency and accountability for China's role in unleashing this deadly virus. He was not putting lives front and centre when the CCP hid the truth about COVID-19 from the world until it was too late, and now we continue to suffer through the disastrous results of those actions," Pompeo said.
US President Donald Trump, on multiple occasions, has blamed China for allowing the coronavirus to spread across the world. He has also referred to it as ''Chinese virus''. A war of words also emerged between Trump and Chinese diplomats of the world over blaming each other for the origin of the virus.
Pompeo said that the US continues to stand with its partners across Africa in confronting the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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