SINGAPORE - Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that the Pacific region is a lot more respectful of what the Chinese did in handling COVID-19 than the Americans, the Singapore Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao reported on Monday.

Lee said in a dialogue with the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board earlier this April that the United States blames the spread of the virus mostly on China, saying that right at the beginning it did not promptly detect, declare and wipe out COVID-19.

"But within a month they did bring it out in the open and countries scrambled to react," he said. "Some responded quickly, while others like the United States regret not reacting faster."