Washington also urged to stay clear of interference in Taiwan-related issues

Some US politicians' Cold War mentality and zero-sum game thinking are the root cause of the serious difficulties affecting bilateral ties between China and the United States, said State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

"They refuse to recognize and respect China's legitimate rights to development, and they do not want to see emerging economies succeed," Wang said in an interview ahead of the G20 summit to be held via video link over the weekend under Saudi Arabia's presidency.

The transcript of the written interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, an Arabic newspaper based in London, was released on the ministry's website on Thursday.

In today's globalized world, all countries are part of a community with interwoven interests, and any attempt to deny the development achievements of other countries or squeeze other countries' development space is doomed to fail, Wang said.

He stressed that such a mindset of unilateralism and bullying, which runs counter to market rules of fair competition and goes against the underlying trend of human development, is not supported by the general public.

"We hope that the US will return to reason, take an objective and rational view of the development of China and other emerging economies and work with China to bring Sino-US relations back to the right track of healthy and stable development as soon as possible," Wang said.

Relations between China and the US are at their lowest point in decades as bilateral exchanges and cooperation in many areas are being seriously disrupted. The two sides have imposed trade and economic sanctions on each other and closed consulates.

The senior Chinese official pointed out that some people in the US have chosen to ignore facts and groundlessly accuse China of spreading the coronavirus to the US and the whole world.

Such attempts are entirely driven by self-serving political manipulation in order to deflect attention and shirk responsibilities for their own mishandling of the disease, Wang said.

He called on all parties to respect facts and science, focus on their respective domestic fights against the disease and actively engage in international cooperation.

Wang also rebutted accusations by the US and other Western countries against China regarding issues related to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region-related, saying they are completely groundless.

He added that China's preventive measures against terrorism in the region do not differ fundamentally at all from the counterterrorism and deradicalization efforts taken by Saudi Arabia and many other countries.

These preventive measures have proved effective with no terrorist cases reported in Xinjiang for nearly four consecutive years, Wang said, adding that rumors, however fabricated and packaged, will fail the test of facts.

"A lie is a lie, even if repeated a thousand times," he said.