To the Editor:

Re “To Protect Global Health, Work With China,” by Xie Feng, China’s foreign affairs commissioner in Hong Kong (Op-Ed, nytimes.com, Feb. 28):

Communist China cannot be trusted, and has not been honest about the coronavirus.

Mr. Xie claims that China responded to the coronavirus outbreak in record time. Yet he conveniently doesn’t mention that when the virus first began to spread, the Chinese government did what it does best: silence critics and detain people accused of spreading rumors. It was his Communist Party that reprimanded and threatened a doctor in Wuhan for warning others about the initial outbreak; the same doctor later died from the disease.

Mr. Xie also claims that the Chinese government has kept the public informed and has been responsive to questions and concerns from citizens. Why, then, did the government wait more than a month into the outbreak to give critical information about infections among medical workers to the World Health Organization?

And why has the government censored articles and posts from families of infected people seeking help? Why did it expel three American journalists documenting and writing about the coronavirus?

But perhaps Mr. Xie’s most egregious decision was to lecture other countries about listening to international groups and abiding by human rights agreements, all while his government denies basic liberties in Hong Kong and holds Uighurs in concentration camps.