Bhubaneswar, May 25 -- Beijing: China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi has accused the US of spreading "conspiracies and lies" about the coronavirus pandemic, ratcheting up tensions between the two nations, it was reported.

Speaking at an annual news conference during China's parliamentary session on Sunday, Wang said that "some political forces in the US are taking China-US relations hostage", the BBC reported.

He did not specify what those forces were, but said they were trying to "push our two countries to the brink of a new Cold War".

"Aside from the devastation caused by the novel coronavirus, there is also a political virus spreading through the US," he said.

"This political virus is the use of every opportunity to attack and smear Ch...