U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Group of Seven foreign ministers agreed with him in talks Wednesday that China was waging a "disinformation" campaign about the coronavirus pandemic.
The top diplomats from the major industrialized nations held a previously scheduled meeting by videoconference, with the United States scrapping a meeting in Pittsburgh as the contagion fears restrict international travel.
Pompeo, who has heavily criticized Beijing over what he calls the "Wuhan virus," said he was united with other ministers -- from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
"Every one of the nations that were at that meeting this morning was deeply aware of the disinformation campaign that the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in to try and deflect from what has really taken place," Pompeo told reporters after the talks.
Pompeo said that China "has been and continues to be engaged in" a campaign on social media that has included conspiracy theories that the United States was behind the virus, which was first detected in the Chinese metropolis of Wuhan.
