China defended its handling of the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday but said it would “strive to do better” after independent experts criticised the speed of its response to a virus that has now killed more than two million people worldwide.
Beijing has faced international criticism for an alleged lack of transparency after the virus emerged in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019 and for stifling whistleblowers who tried to raise the alarm.
READ | WHO, China Could Have Acted More Quickly: Pandemic Response Probe
The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response — which also criticised the World Health Organization over its response — said Monday that its evaluation of the start of the crisis in China “suggests that there was potential for early signs to have been acted on more rapidly”.
The panel, established by the WHO to independently study global responses to the virus, said it was clear that “public health measures could have been applied more forcefully by local and…