China has been triggered enough by the comments of one smarmy Fox News host that it called him out during a Foreign Ministry press conference.

On Monday’s episode of The Five, professional provocateur Jesse Watters suggested, half-jokingly, that the Chinese government ought to apologize for the Covid-19 virus outbreak that has infected more than 95,000 people around the globe.

“I’d like to ask to the Chinese government for a formal apology. This coronavirus originated in China and I have not heard one word from the Chinese,” Watters said to chuckles. “A simple ‘I’m sorry’ would do. It would go a long way.”

When his co-host Dana Perino asked, “What if the outbreak had started here?” Watters was quick to shoot down that hypothetical.

“It didn’t start here, Dana, and I’ll tell you why it started in China. Because they have these markets where they’re eating raw bats and snakes. They are a very hungry people,” he said to growing laughter.

“The Chinese Communist government cannot feed the people and they are desperate. This food is uncooked, it is unsafe, and that is why, scientists believe, that’s where it originated from.”

“And according to The New York Times, Dana, the Chinese government has been very deceitful and deceptive in the communicating the extent of the infections to the world,” Watters concluded. “So, as I said, tomorrow I will expect an apology.”

JFC! Fox News' Jesse Watters claims that the coronavirus started because Chinese people "have these markets where they were eating raw bats and snakes" pic.twitter.com/Km5BK6Ax9c — Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 2, 2020

Of course, China has not issued an apology. Instead, Watters was called out during a Foreign Ministry presser on Thursday.

“Did anyone ask the US to apologize for the 2009 H1N1 outbreak that has spread to 214 countries and regions and killed at least 18,449 people?” rhetorically asked spokesperson Zhao Lijian.

The rebuke has been echoed by Chinese state media.

While Fox News host @JesseBWatters invoked biased tropes about China and demanded formal apology, we should ask, did the US formally apologize for the H1N1 outbreak that was first detected in the US and later killed an estimated number of 280,000 around the world? pic.twitter.com/0Wih1OoIy5 — Global Times (@globaltimesnews) March 5, 2020

Watters has never been one to shy away from racist stereotypes.

He got in a bit of trouble back in 2016 for a particularly appalling segment in which he visited New York’s Chinatown, asking Chinese people about their well-known penchant for karate and bowing, making fun of their accents, and totally owning one elderly woman who couldn’t understand his question.