China accuses U.S. of 'barefaced lies' about coronavirus response

China thinks the U.S. should start looking at its own coronavirus response before taking the blame overseas.

U.S. politicians, particularly Republicans, have repeatedly blamed China's government for an allegedly botched response to the COVID-19 crisis, with President Trump saying Monday he'd consider billing China for damages. Beijing responded Tuesday to accuse those politicians of "telling barefaced lies" in an attempt to "shirk their responsibility" for their own sub-par response.

"American politicians have repeatedly ignored the truth and have been telling barefaced lies," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Tuesday at a press briefing. "They have only one objective: shirk their responsibility for their own poor epidemic prevention and control measures, and divert public attention."

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A reporter on Monday told Trump "Germany sent a bill to China ... for the damages caused by the coronavirus," though the 130 billion euro charge was actually drawn up by a German newspaper. "We are looking at things," Trump responded, saying "we are talking about a lot more money than Germany's talking about."

China had previously admitted to "shortcomings and deficiencies" in its coronavirus response, but that was months ago, before the disease had majorly spread in the U.S.