Some U.S. politicians are using coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2) as a weapon to smear China, the Xinhua official news agency said on Sunday, as a war of words escalated between the two countries over China’s handling of the epidemic.

The editorial accused Robert O’Brien, the U.S. National Security Adviser, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of spreading a “political virus” and using it to put China down.

Mr. O’Brien said last week that China had reacted slowly to the virus, probably costing the world two months when it could have been preparing, in remarks that angered China. Mr. Pompeo has said the U.S. response to the outbreak had been hindered by what he called imperfect data from China.

‘Precious time’ earned

However, Xinhua said China’s actions including strict quarantine of millions of people had earned the world “precious time” to prepare for the epidemic, which has been recognised by the international community.

It added that the U.S. efforts to deal with its own virus cases had been widely criticised.

Xinhua also attacked the U.S. politicians for calling the virus the “Wuhan virus” or “Chinese virus”.