China criticizes Pompeo's 'possible' wording as groundless
CGTN
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File photo of Geng Shuang. (Photo: CGTN)

"Mr. Pompeo, do not think that as long as you stressed the word 'possible,' you can arbitrarily swindle others," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang at Friday's regular conference.

The spokesperson made the remarks when asked to comment on the accusation of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who charged on Thursday in an interview that China possibly knew of the new coronavirus as early as November.

"You'll recall that the first cases of these were known by the Chinese government maybe as early as November, but certainly by mid-December," Pompeo said

Geng stressed that China has always been transparent in information-sharing, prevention and control work against the virus, and has actively participated in global cooperation.

The spokesperson added that China has already issued a timeline covering all critical time points in the prevention and control efforts since the outbreak, which clearly demonstrates that Pompeo's remarks were nonsensical and groundless.

China releases a timeline of its response to COVID-19 on April 6.

Here are the highlights from the timeline:

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