File photo of Yang Jiechi: Xinhua

China strongly condemned some US politicians for slandering China and China's efforts to control the spread of COVID-19, and urged the US side to correct the mistakes, Yang Jiechi, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee said during a telephone call on Monday with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at the latter's request.

Yang, also the director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, said that the situation in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic in China continued to improve, and the efforts of the Chinese people have bought the world precious time in containing the virus.

He said that some US politicians kept slandering China and China's prevention and control efforts and stigmatizing China, which has aroused outrage among Chinese people. China firmly opposes and strongly condemns this.

Any attempt to discredit and defame China will never succeed, and any act that undermines China's interests will be met with a firm counterattack from the Chinese side, Yang said.

The Chinese side urged the US to strengthen communication and cooperation with China and the international community and jointly safeguard international public health security, Yang said.

Yang's remarks were made after the US State Department summoned the Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai over Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian's recent tweets.

In his tweets, Zhao claimed it might be US army representatives who brought the novel coronavirus to Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province in October 2019, after a top US health official admitted detecting coronavirus infections on some deceased flu patients. Zhao urged the US to disclose further information, exercise transparency on coronavirus cases and provide an explanation to the public.

The US side has made unreasonable representations to the Chinese side in both Beijing and Washington, and the Chinese side instead lodged representations to the US side at the scenes over some US officials' remarks that attacked and smeared China by using the coronavirus, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said at Monday's media briefing.

"Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire," Geng cited an ancient Chinese idiom. 

He said that China and the US should strengthen communication to safeguard global public health security.