China's top diplomat in the United States rebutted claims that his country underreported the number of COVID-19 cases and related deaths, suggesting instead that the accusers usually have something hidden under their "dirty carpet".
Ambassador Cui Tiankai, in an interview with Ian Bremmer at the weekly digital and broadcast show Gzero World, also said that the majority of the several million people believed to have left Wuhan before the capital of Hubei province was locked down on Jan 23 to combat the novel coronavirus had actually remained in China, instead of traveling elsewhere and spreading the virus.
For the accusations that China is hiding the numbers, just think about it. We have such a huge population, such a big country, you cannot hide the cases with such a very vicious virus ... If people are infected, they're just infected. How can you hide them?
Cui Tiankai, Chinese ambassador to the US
The program began airing nationally over the weekend on US public television.
"For the accusations that China is hiding the numbers, just think about it. We have such a huge population, such a big country, you cannot hide the cases with such a very vicious virus," Cui said in the interview on April 3.
"Because if you have patients, they are just patients. If people are infected, they're just infected. How can you hide them?" Cui told Bremmer, president and founder of Gzero Media and Eurasia Group.
ALSO READ: Chinese UN envoy showcases nation's success in virus fight
As for those people and some institutions accusing China of concealing data, Cui suggested that if they look at their own history, they usually are the people and institutions who are "always hiding and concealing" something from the public.
He was not asked to elaborate on who the accusers are.
"I don't know what is under their dirty carpet. Maybe you could have a look," he said.
Cui offered a brief timeline of reporting of what later was categorized as COVID-19 in Wuhan, saying that before Li Wenliang, an eye doctor who sounded the alarm about the infection, another doctor, also in the city, had reported suspicious cases of people running a fever for unknown reasons.
Three days after that doctor made that report, the local CDC sent an alert to all local hospitals to say that there were suspicious cases of unknown cause, according to the ambassador.
"The first reporting was on Dec 27 last year. Then on Jan 3, we informed the World Health Organization of this particular situation," Cui said. "Then a day after that, the CDCs of our two countries had their first communication."
Then when people came to realize the virus could be transmitted between humans, the central government sent experts to Wuhan to look at the suspicious cases, Cui noted.
READ MORE: China publishes timeline on COVID-19 information sharing
"When they came to realize that this is transmittable between humans, we locked down the whole city of Wuhan with 10 million people," he said. The lockdown was then expanded to the whole of Hubei with a population of 60 million.
Two days after the lockdown of Wuhan, the United States evacuated its consulate in the city, along with its citizens. Then in early February, the US closed its borders to all foreign travelers from the Chinese mainland or who had been in China within the past 14 days.
READ MORE: Virus: China envoy urges better global governance, Sino-US ties
The overall recovery rate for COVID-19 in Wuhan has improved to 94 percent, with that of patients aged above 80 nearing 70 percent, according to the latest official figures.
Cui said Chinese people are working very hard to restart the economy and restore economic and social activities, with many companies operating and shops and schools in many provinces open again.
"So you cannot do all these things if you have no confidence that you are able to contain the virus," Cui said. "And the number of infected people is coming down; this is quite clear."
READ MORE: Wuhan reopens after 76-day lockdown
In the interview, Bremmer asked about the whereabouts of some 5 million Chinese from Wuhan. After the lockdown, the mayor of Wuhan was widely quoted as saying they were traveling "during the period of time that we now know that this virus was starting to explode".
Cui did not confirm the number, but said that even if a large number of people left Wuhan before the lockdown, he thought the "overwhelming majority" of them didn't have visas to go to any other country. Because they left in a hurry, they didn't have time to apply for visas.
So if they left Wuhan, most of them must have stayed in China. But the confirmed cases in other Chinese provinces, even those close to Wuhan, are not very high, meaning China has effectively contained the spread of the virus within China, according to the ambassador.
"So I don't think people could put the blame on us for the increasing number in countries far, far away from China," he said. "Maybe they are from elsewhere."
