LONDON: Beijing’s ambassador to London on Thursday said Britain’s advice for its nationals to leave China because of the novel coronavirus outbreak was an unhelpful “overreaction” and urged the policy to be reversed. Liu Xiaoming said Beijing had told the UK the move was not “a good idea” and instead called for a more measured approach. On Tuesday the British Foreign Office advised UK nationals to leave China “if they can” to minimise their risk of exposure to the coronavirus, following similar advice by the United States. “I hope the British government... will take an objective, cool-headed view of what is going on in China,” Liu said at a press conference at the Chinese embassy in London. “We asked them to take (the) advice of (the) WHO to make a reasonable response, do not overreact.

Source: New Strait Times February 06, 2020 15:45 UTC