Iran blasts China, calls coronavirus figures a "bitter joke"

The official spokesperson of Iran's health ministry called China's coronavirus death and infection figures a "bitter joke."

In a press conference last month, Kianush Jahanpur said: “It seems statistics from China was a bitter joke, because many in the world thought this is just like influenza, with fewer deaths. This [impression] were based on reports from China and now it seems China made a bitter joke with the rest of the world”.

Jahanpur added, “If in China they say an epidemic was controlled in two months, one should really think about it”.

Since then, a report by US intelligence found that China willingly suppressed data, going so far as to call the Chinese figures "fake."

Official numbers in China say that only 2,500 people lost their lives. China's official death rate is less than 10 percent than that of countries such as Italy and Spain, who are reporting roughly 250 deaths per million from the virus.

China's transparency with the virus has been questioned from authorities across the globe, after the Chinese Communist Party would be expelled American journalists from the country.

A statement from the Chinese Communist Party stated that "American journalists working in China will not be allowed to continue working as journalists in the People’s Republic of China, including its Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions."

Reports of deaths and disease spread dramatically dropped after the expulsion.

Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer also revealed he was skeptical of China's number, saying: "I view anything from, a government that is autocratic, that is not democratically elected, that does not have robust and open transparency measures that controls the media in its own country—I view everything that those types of governments say with a great deal of suspicion and skepticism."