A research report, "'America Ranked First'?! The Truth about America's Fight against COVID-19", was jointly released by three Chinese think tanks in Beijing on Monday.

Martin Jacques, a former senior fellow at Cambridge University, said at a seminar where the report was released that the "attack on China" is a strategy of distraction and deflection aimed at tarnishing China's reputation to the greatest degree, and to distract from the poor US performance.

"COVID-19 is mired in a sort of Cold War rhetoric, Cold War language, and Cold War assault by the US, and this is going to continue," Jacques said via video link.