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But other countries have pushed back on Beijing, reporting that Chinese-provided tests or other medical supplies have been defective. The Dutch Health Ministry said over the weekend that 600,000 medical masks from China would not be used and some would be recalled after distribution because they did not fit or work properly. In Spain, health authorities said tens of thousands of tests, out of hundreds of thousands from China, were defective, with Turkey and the Czech Republic reporting similar issues.

The European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, warned that the U.S. and China are competing in \"a struggle for influence through spinning and the 'politics of generosity.'\"

\"China is aggressively pushing the message that, unlike the U.S., it is a responsible and reliable partner. In the battle of narratives, we have also seen attempts to discredit the EU as such, and some instances where Europeans have been stigmatized as if all were carriers of the virus,\" Borrell said, an apparent reference to Trump's restriction on travel from Europe that he initially cast as a Europe-wide ban and that was issued without European consultation, a senior European diplomat told ABC News at the time.

Pompeo's statement also seemed intended to quell a domestic audience. With testing insufficient to broadly trace and isolate cases in the U.S., and shortages of equipment like face masks and ventilators putting the lives of medical professionals and patients at risk, there has been anger over U.S. assistance to other countries.

We have coordinated with U.S. organizations to transport more humanitarian relief to people in Wuhan. Personal protective equipment and other medical supplies donated by these organizations can help save lives in #China and help protect people from the #coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/57SN2TXfLP

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) February 7, 2020

In particular, the State Department helped send 17.8 tons of personal protective equipment, or PPE, and other medical supplies from U.S. charities, including Samaritan's Purse and the Mormon Church, to Wuhan in early February. Pompeo tweeted video of their arrival in China, saying they \"can help save lives in #China and help protect people from the #coronavirus.\"

\"Trump, you incompetent idiot! You sent 18 tons of PPE to China early but ignored warnings & called COVID19 concerns a hoax. You've endangered doctors, nurses, aids, orderlies, & janitors - all risking their lives to save ours,\" tweeted Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., chair of the House Financial Services Committee -- although those supplies didn’t come from the nation’s stockpiles.

The U.S. has offered $274 million to assist 64 different countries and UNHCR in combatting the pandemic, and Pompeo said Tuesday those funds are key to keeping the American people safe as well.

\"In America, we provide aid because we're a generous and noble people. We also do it because we know from prior experiences that [if] we don't have good data, full transparency, and all-out effort to fight pandemics, that can harm Americans back home, too,\" he said.

\"PHOTO:
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images, FILE
PHOTO: A worker checks the temperature of a customer amid a coronavirus outbreak as he wears a protective suit and mask at a supermarket in Beijing, China, on Feb. 11, 2020.
>

But experts have called for a global effort to combat the pandemic, arguing that individual countries alone, battling over medical resources or finger-pointing about the virus' origins, will not solve this crisis. The U.S., however, has made no public effort to bring together like-minded countries, and foreign ministers from the G7 alliance of democracies failed to issue a joint statement on the pandemic after Pompeo insisted the group call it the \"Wuhan virus.\"

\"Unfortunately, even as COVID-19 accelerates inside our country, the Trump administration seems to view diplomacy as a bludgeon to score points against adversaries and alienate friends rather than an essential tool for helping to protect Americans,\" tweeted Brett McGurk, a senior diplomat under George W. Bush and Barack Obama who served as special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS until he resigned over Trump's ordered withdrawal from Syria.

The presidents of Germany, Singapore, Ethiopia, and Ecuador, and the king of Jordan authored a joint op-ed in the Financial Times on Tuesday, calling for a new global alliance to convene the \"medical, economic, and political elements required to produce a vaccine for all who need it\" and ensure that testing kits are produced quickly and distributed widely and fairly.

\"This is a global crisis. Delay in action means death. We all face the same enemy and we stand to gain by bringing the full force of humanity together to fight it,\" the five leaders wrote. \"Before this virus, we are all equal and must work together to beat it.\"

ABC News's Mel Madarang contributed to this report.

What to know about the coronavirus:

Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis.

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