Blaming China for the COVID-19 pandemic is unfair and pointless, a sinologist has told Xinhua.
Some countries "underestimated the seriousness of this virus and now when the situation is out of control, their capacities in dealing with the crisis have been challenged. So they are putting the blame on China for everything, which I think is unfair," said B. R. Deepak, a professor of Chinese and China Studies at India's Jawaharlal Nehru University.
"This is leading nowhere," Deepak said.
"To put the blame and ask for compensation is nothing but to seek political points, and shift inability to deal with the crisis to others," he said, adding that throughout history, there are always some countries with "the habit of blaming others when they cannot handle things on their own."
The professor said it is "not right" to accuse China of hiding information, referring to China's timely sharing of the genome sequence of the novel coronavirus with the World Health Organization (WHO) on Jan. 12 and the country's daily updates of the number of new infections, deaths and recoveries especially after the lockdown of the Chinese city of Wuhan as examples.
Deepak said it is time to stop the "blame game" and fight together against humanity's common enemy.
"What we need to do at this point of time is we need a collective solution for the sake of humanity," he said.
He also lamented the recent U.S. move to withdraw fund for the WHO.
"In the moment of crisis, the United States has suspended aid to the WHO ... so rather than helping countries out to fight the disease, it retrenches, pulls out and does not shoulder the responsibility," he said.
"A big power doesn't do it like that. It doesn't behave like that," he added.