While China has provided medical assistance for other countries amid the global pneumonia outbreak, some Western politicians have expressed some strange concerns. Instead of worrying about the safety and security of the public, they are afraid that China’s international image may improve, and even outperform that of the U.S.

On March 30, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talked about striking back against China for publicizing "false" information about the novel coronavirus in a phone call with Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). However, Pompeo was unable to specify what kind of false information was being spread.

Distorting China’s intentions is just another spiteful attempt from the U.S. after it tried to stigmatize China by calling the novel coronavirus the "Chinese virus" to pass the buck onto China for its incompetence in controlling the epidemic.

Some American politicians failed to see that viruses should not be connected with race, nations or ideology, and that human life and security should always come first. For them, what matters most is that the Chinese model should never beat the Western one. If the fact that China has done well is beyond dispute, then they had no choice but to ignore or distort the facts and accuse the country of having ulterior motives.

"He (Pompeo) has dedicated himself to affixing blame to Beijing for the epidemic, seemingly in an attempt to counter growing Chinese efforts to aid other nations — initiatives that the Trump administration has failed to match," said Jackson Diehl, deputy editorial page editor of The Washington Post in an article published in the newspaper on March 29.

China has done much more than the U.S. to bring the epidemic to an end, according to an article on Project Syndicate, an international media organization that publishes and syndicates commentary and analysis on global topics.

The article pointed out that the U.S. can't stop the world from learning from China's methods and models in its response to the crisis, and China's anti-epidemic efforts have proved so far to be reassuring. In contrast, no country has asked the U.S. for help and the U.S. hasn't provided any, it said.

What the world needs during this epidemic is cooperation, and repeatedly smearing China is really out of tune with this background of solidarity.

For those who accuse China of "mask diplomacy", as Hua Chunying, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, asked, would it be more acceptable for China to turn a blind eye to people who are stricken by the epidemic?

The Chinese government has provided material supplies for 120 countries and four international organizations, including medical masks, N95 masks, protective clothing, nucleic acid testing reagents and ventilators. China's efforts and dedication deserve respect, not slanderous remarks.