BEIJING, May 18 (Xinhua) -- To shirk its responsibilities for taking inadequate measures and failing to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. side has recently ramped up claims that China should be held accountable for the outbreak and has to pay for it.

Such groundless accusations were only meant to seek scapegoats for domestic dilemma in the United States, Chinese experts said.

The 2020 election year in the United States has led some U.S. politicians into repeated moves to maneuver public opinion in an attempt to win the presidential and congressional elections by inciting populism and hatred toward China, said Huang Jin, president of the Chinese Society of International Law.

From a legal perspective, the pandemic is a global public health issue, and there is no such a thing as "state responsibility" of the first country to report cases, experts said, adding that AIDS was first reported in the United States in the 1980s and has spread across the world since then, but the global community has never asked the United States to be held accountable.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has been fully fulfilling its duties stipulated by the International Health Regulations, as well as honoring its moral obligations, said Kong Qingjiang, head of the School of International Law at the China University of Political Science and Law, adding that China should bear no so-called "state responsibility."

The virus has no nationality and knows no borders, experts said, stressing that only through global cooperation can the pandemic be defeated.