Photo: GT

China’s Embassy in the Netherlands urged the US ambassador to the Netherlands on Saturday to “mind your proper duties."

At the critical moment of the serious COVID-19 situation in the US, “shouldn't the US Ambassador to the Netherlands also focus on promoting and participating in international cooperation in the fight against the pandemic? Would it be possible to keep American people from the threat of the spread of the virus by fabricating some lies that slander China?” read the notice from the Chinese Embassy’s website. 

“We know that the US is very seriously hit by the pandemic and has become the country with the largest number of confirmed cases in the world. We are concerned about this and sincerely hope that the US epidemic will be brought under control at an early date, which is good for the whole world,” said the release.

US Ambassador Peter Hoekstra was interviewed by the Algemeen Dagblad newspaper, and in that interview accused China of being “not honest about the coronavirus.” 

The Chinese Embassy said in the release that China received the first suspicious case report at the end of December last year, and formally notified the WHO at the beginning of January this year, and shared the nucleic acid sequence of the novel coronavirus with WHO and countries around the world on January 12. Since then, China has updated the data every day.

“If the United States really does not understand the severity of the COVID-19 epidemic, why did the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issue a warning about the new corona virus on January 15? Why did the US announce on January 25 the closure of the Consulate General in Wuhan and the withdrawal of personnel? Why was the border closed on February 2 to all Chinese citizens and foreigners who have been to China in the past 14 days? It should be known that the outbreak in the United States began to take place more than a month after these measures were taken.”

When asked by the newspaper what others can learn from China's experience, Hoekstra said: "What China can learn is how well the United States and Europe are working together in this crisis." 

The Chinese Embassy said in the release, “Well, China is willing to learn from other countries with humility. There are also a lot of good things in the United States we can learn from, but we will certainly not learn from people like Ambassador Hoekstra.”

The Chinese Embassy said in the release that Ambassador Hoekstra is “very active, but seems to be spending his energy in the wrong place,” as anyone with basic common sense knows that the ambassador of a country has important responsibilities. 

“The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations stipulates five functions of the Embassy, including representing the sending country, protecting its nationals, conducting negotiations, ascertaining the situation in the receiving country, and promoting friendly relations between the sending country and receiving country. Among them, not a single word expressly or implicitly entitles the Ambassador the function of undermining relations between the receiving country and a third country,” read the release. 

“If Ambassador Hoekstra thinks that the relationship between the US and the Netherlands can only be maintained by destroying the relationship between China and the Netherlands, isn't the foundation of the relationship between the United States and the Netherlands not secure? We kindly suggest Ambassador Hoekstra to do his homework before openly commenting on China, including clarifying the basic facts, and also carefully studying international law, especially the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic.”

Global Times