The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday refuted an accusation against China made by U.S. President Donald Trump's trade adviser, saying Peter Navarro is a "liar" who's spreading a political virus to stigmatize China.

In an interview with MSNBC on July 3, Navarro accused the Chinese government of restricting domestic travel as it "freely sent hundreds of thousands of Chinese nationals on aircraft around the world." He also claimed China was responsible for "forcing Americans to stay locked in our homes and lose our jobs."

The accusations are groundless attempts to shift blame for the U.S. government's mishandling of the pandemic, the ministry's spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a daily briefing. Navarro is a "habitual liar" who made up a fictitious economist to stigmatize China in his books, the spokesman added.

Zhao said when Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first reported in China, was locked down on January 23, there was only one confirmed coronavirus case in the United States, and when the U.S. closed its border to Chinese passengers on February 2, there were more than 10 confirmed cases in the U.S.

Between January 24 and April 8, the period Wuhan City was locked down, no commercial flights or trains departed from Wuhan to any other cities domestically or abroad, Zhao continued, adding that the confirmed cases in the U.S. during that period soared to 400,000.

The U.S. government should take some effective measures to halt the spread of the virus in the country and stop shifting blame to China, he added.

(Cover: White House trade adviser Peter Navarro outside the West Wing of the White House in Washington, U.S,. March 4, 2019. /Reuters)