China blasts remarks of US official on religion

Beijing on Friday blasted the remarks of an American official who said China should release Muslims detained in Xinjiang during the global coronavirus pandemic.

Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback had said China continues to keep people imprisoned for their faith.

"Those should all be released in this time of pandemic," he asserted.

"Brownback is another rumor-mongering specialist," said Hua Chunying, spokesperson for China's foreign ministry spokeswoman, on Friday.

"There is no so-called 'religious prisoner' in China, nor is there detention of millions of Muslims in Xinjiang," she told reporters during a regular briefing in Beijing.

Hua said U.S. politicians should pay more attention to the domestic outbreak of the new coronavirus.

She also responded to reports that U.S. lawmakers plan to unveil a bill named after Li Wenliang, the young Chinese doctor who died from the virus.

The doctor was reprimanded by police for raising the alarm about the disease at the early stages of its spread.

Hua said the doctor's name was being used for political manipulation.

"It is a great disrespect and offense to Dr. Li Wenliang and his family," Hua said.

The bill gives the Trump administration the power to impose sanctions on Chinese officials involved in distortion of information about the coronavirus.

China on Friday reported 31 new confirmed virus cases, 29 of them from overseas, and four new deaths.

China now has recorded a total of 81,620 cases and 3,322 deaths, although those figures are generally considered too low because of a lack of testing and a reluctance to report the scale of the original outbreak.

More than 3,000 health care workers contracted COVID-19 and the government says 14 died of the disease.

Among them was doctor Li Wenliang, who was threatened with punishment by police after publicizing news of the outbreak but has since been listed among the national martyrs.