US driving wedge between Communist Party, Chinese people over COVID-19: China

China on Friday asked American politicians not to "waste" their time by trying to drive a "wedge" between the ruling Communist Party and the Chinese people over the deadly coronavirus pandemic.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying during a media briefing here said it was under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Chinese people made important progress in fighting the pandemic.

Accusing Chinese political system. We cannot accept this. They are doing it out of malicious intentions. They want to drive a wedge between the CPC and people," Hua said.

The US politicians shouldn't waste time in driving a wedge between the CPC and the people. Our political systems can co-exist and this serves the common interest of both the people," she said, responding to criticism on a host of issues related to China by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

In recent days, US President Donald Trump and Pompeo have claimed that the deadly virus originated from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak was first detected last December.

The Trump administration is currently weighing punitive actions against China over its early handling of the global health emergency. Washington is also pressing Beijing to allow American experts to probe the origin of the deadly virus.

China has stoutly denied the allegations and says the US wants to distract from its own response to the pandemic ahead of the November presidential election in which Trump is seeking re-election.

The US is home to the world's largest and deadliest coronavirus outbreak, with more than 75,000 fatalities and over 1.2 million cases.

Pompeo, who is regularly accusing China on a slew of issues relating to the COVID-19, dominates the Chinese Foreign Ministry press briefings almost every day with a host of Chinese journalists raising questions one after another seeking response for comments.

This promoted her to say that the ministry's briefings have become a venue to refute Pompeo's "lies".

Stating that China and the US should not be enemies but "comrades" in this fight against this pandemic, she said, Facing the coronavirus pandemic, ideological and political differences can be put aside. Life matters the most."