Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai delivers a speech in Washington D.C., the United States, Nov. 21, 2019. (Xinhua/Liu Jie)

 China is sparing no effort to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, a challenge to both China and the international community, by adhering to openness and transparency, Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said.

"So we always have, as one of our basic principles, openness and transparency," Cui said in an interview with National Public Radio on Thursday. "We believe openness and transparency will give people more confidence, will give them more awareness about the virus, what the real risks are and how to prevent them."

"We are providing, you see all the figures, the numbers on a daily basis, just to make people reassured that we're doing our most to confront it," Cui said. "This will certainly help us to dispel any fake news, rumors or what people call pseudoscience."

Noting the novel coronavirus outbreak was "a very big challenge to the entire international community," the ambassador said that China has taken an unprecedented response to curb the spread of the virus for people's well-being as well as the interests of the entire world.

"So we are shutting down some of the cities, especially Wuhan, to stop the transmission of the virus, to protect more people," Cui said.

Despite the "high cost" of the current efforts, Cui said that "we are doing this in the larger interests of the entire world. If we fail to stop the virus, it could spread to other countries. Then this would cause an international crisis."

The ambassador said China is making utmost efforts to contain the virus by providing people with treatment and reducing its impact on economic and social activities.

"So this is, I believe, a real example of a one-for-all, all-for-one situation," Cui said. "We are doing this for the world. And we appreciate that the world is helping us."

On the so-called "decoupling" between China and the United States, which some US experts suggested the current outbreak would promote, Cui said that "decoupling" should not happen, nor can it happen.

"Because we are the two largest economies in the world. We are so interconnected, so interdependent. This interdependence has worked in the interests of both countries," said Cui. "Both economies, both peoples have benefited a great deal from such growing economic ties. Why should anybody try to cut it off, to have this so-called 'decoupling'?"

Cui cited the phase-one economic and trade agreement between China and the United States as evidence to dismiss the "decoupling" theory, and expressed hope that the deal will be "implemented effectively," which he said is "a big plus" for overall China-US relations.

"The good news is that we have concluded the phase-one trade agreement. This is evidence that there's intention on both sides to solve our economic problem and maintain and develop our economic relations," Cui added.

The China-US phase-one economic and trade agreement takes effect on Friday. As part of the agreement, the US government agreed to cut additional tariffs on roughly 120 billion US dollars' worth of Chinese products from 15 percent to 7.5 percent, while China would also halve rates of additional tariffs on 75 billion dollars' worth of US products.