BEIJING  Chinese officials, stung by criticism in the West that China had sabotaged a legally binding agreement for reducing greenhouse gases during talks in Copenhagen, fired back on Tuesday, saying that wealthy nations were seeking to sow discord among developing countries in a cynical attempt to avoid reducing their own emissions.

In comments made to the state-run media, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman took umbrage at the assertions made by Ed Miliband, the British secretary of state for energy and climate change, who said that Beijing had thwarted the passage of an ironclad agreement last week.

Mr. Miliband, in an article published Sunday in The Guardian, accused China of scuttling a proposal that would have reduced global emissions by 50 percent by 2050 with developed countries pledging to reduce climate-warming pollution by 80 percent over the same period.

“The last two weeks at times have presented a farcical picture to the public,” he wrote. “We cannot again allow negotiations on real points of substance to be hijacked in this way.”