The United States has taken actions that create and spread fear following a coronavirus outbreak in China, instead of offering any significant assistance, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday.
The United States was the first nation to suggest partial withdrawal of its embassy staff, and the first to impose a ban on Chinese travellers, said ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
"All it has done could only create and spread fear, which is a bad example," Hua told an online news briefing, adding that China hoped countries would make judgements and responses that were reasonable, calm and based on science.
The United States began evacuating U.S. citizens from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have first emerged late last year, on Jan. 28.
The World Health Organization on Jan. 30 declared the accelerating outbreak a global emergency. On the same day, the U.S. State Department raised its travel advisory for China.
"It is precisely developed countries like the United States with strong epidemic prevention capabilities and facilities that have taken the lead in imposing excessive restrictions contrary to WHO recommendations," Hua said.
Washington on Friday declared a public health emergency and temporarily banned the entry of foreign nationals who have travelled to China over the past two weeks, to contain the spread of the outbreak.
Sweeping new restrictions will also be imposed on American citizens, with those returning from the province at the disease's epicentre placed in facilities for a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
There have been eight confirmed US cases of the new coronavirus, which originated in a live seafood market in Wuhan, in China's Hubei province.
The virus has since spread to more than 24 countries, despite many governments imposing unprecedented travel bans on people coming from China.
The World Health Organization has already declared the outbreak a global emergency, and the Chinese death toll has risen to 362 while total infections reached over 17,000, surpassing the SARS epidemic of two decades ago.
On Sunday the first foreign death from the virus was reported in the Philippines.
