Medical workers pose for photos after seeing cured patients off at the Wuchang temporary hospital in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province on March 10. Photo: Xinhua

On 5 April 2020, the Mail on Sunday published a letter by Ms. Zeng Rong，Spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the UK, on its unjustified comments on China’s combating COVID-19. The full text is as follows:

I cannot agree with your articles about how Downing Street says China faces a ‘reckoning’ over its handling of coronavirus and how it risks becoming a ‘pariah state’. Such reports completely disregard the tremendous efforts and huge sacrifice of China and its people in its battle against COVID-19, and deny China’s significant contribution to global public health and safety. We are shocked and deeply concerned. The Chinese Embassy in the UK has expressed grave concern to the British Government regarding those claims and remarks, and has urged the latter to clarify. Senior officials of the British Government have replied that the reported remarks do not represent Government position, and that Britain speaks highly of China’s contribution to the global response to COVID-19 and regards the China-UK relationship as fundamentally important.

After the outbreak of COVID-19, China wasted no time in identifying the pathogen of the virus, sharing the genetic sequence with the World Health Organisation, taking the most effective, strict and comprehensive measures to contain the spread of the disease, sharing experience with other countries in need, and providing assistance to more than 120 countries, including the UK, and to four international organisations.

These efforts and contribution of China should not be distorted. As Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, says, China ‘deserves our gratitude’.

I would like to emphasise that the virus respects no borders, nor does it distinguish between races. It is a common enemy of mankind and could be defeated only through concerted efforts of the international community. Prejudice, vilification and discrediting would only undermine the global response.

We urge relevant British media and politicians to abandon their arrogance and prejudice, take an objective view of China’s efforts and achievements in combating COVID-19, and contribute positive energy to global public health and safety, instead of doing the opposite.