Medical worker Kang Liyuan (3rd R) and her colleagues cheer themselves up at Wuhan No. 7 Hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 25, 2020. (Photo by Xiong Fang/Xinhua)

"Since Mr. Pompeo talks about freedom of speech so much, would he care to explain why he cursed at an NPR journalist? Why was the journalist denied press credentials to travel with him? Is that Mr. Pompeo's definition of 'freedom of speech'? I think it's typical discourse monopoly and double standards," said a Foreign Ministry spokesperson.

BEIJING, Feb. 26  -- China on Wednesday expressed strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's groundless accusation against the country's novel coronavirus (COVID-19) prevention and control work, and urged the U.S. side to give up ideological bias, and stop undermining China-U.S. mutual trust and cooperation.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a press briefing in response to a question concerning Pompeo's accusation that expelling Wall Street Journal (WSJ) journalists exposes the issue in China's COVID-19 response, alleging that if China permitted its own and foreign journalists to speak freely, China and other nations would have been far better prepared to address the challenge.

"When the Chinese people are going all-out to fight the epidemic, Mr. Pompeo once again launched groundless accusation against China. This is so abhorrent and we are firmly opposed to it," Zhao said.