China urged the United States on Tuesday to reflect upon and correct its wrong remarks and the practice of interfering in China's internal affairs under the pretext of Hong Kong issues in order to avoid damaging mutual trust and cooperation.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin made the remark after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the US must open its doors to those who wish to leave Hong Kong, as the United Kingdom has said it will do.

Hong Kong affairs are purely China's internal affairs and allow for no foreign interference, Wang said.

Any illegal activities should be punished by law, which is a principle applied in every country and region under the rule of law, he said.

He said if the US agreed that this principle is also applied to the lawbreakers involved in the Capitol Hill incident, it should reflect upon and correct its move to openly support lawbreakers in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

In response to Blinken's claim that China lacked transparency with regard to the trip by World Health Organization experts to the country, Wang said the ongoing visit is part of a global study on origin-tracing of the virus and the Chinese government has provided tremendous support and assistance.

China has been open and transparent in conducting origin-tracing communication and cooperation with the WHO and experts from the organization have paid three visits to China, Wang said.

Clues, reports and studies have shown that the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in many places around the world as early as the second half of 2019.

According to a study published in November in the medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, infections could have occurred in the US in December 2019, more than a month before the official report of the first US COVID-19 case.

Beijing hopes Washington will adopt an active, scientific and cooperative attitude as China does, maintain transparency and invite WHO experts to carry out origin-tracing research in the US, Wang said.