The spokesperson of the Chinese embassy in the United States on Tuesday urged The Washington Post (WP) to stop publishing misleading and unfactual editorials on COVID-19 origins.

The Washington Post editorial "Hunting the virus origins" dated Sept. 1 "distorts the facts about COVID-19 origins tracing and is seriously misleading for the readers," said the spokesperson.

To set the record straight, the Chinese embassy has responded to the WP editorial board with a letter, asking for it to be published, but was refused.

"After that, the WP published other editorials and letters claiming that SARS-CoV-2 was leaked from Chinese laboratories," said the spokesperson.

"This shows the WP has no respect for science, facts, or freedoms of the press and of speech; it could not lend an ear to objective and fair voices," the spokesperson said.

The embassy has posted the letter in full on its website.