Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a news briefing Wednesday. (Kevin Lamarque/AFP/Getty Images)

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo persisted in his criticism of China on Wednesday for obscuring details and early signs of the coronavirus outbreak, as Beijing accused him of pushing an unverified theory that it began in a lab in Wuhan.

In a news conference at the State Department, Pompeo blamed China’s lack of transparency for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people around the world.