BEIJING - The United States will soon resume operations at its consulate in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the novel coronavirus outbreak began late last year, the US Embassy said on Wednesday (June 10).

US ambassador to China, Mr Terry Branstad, "intends to resume operations in Wuhan in the near future", Mr Frank Whitaker, minister counsellor for Public Affairs at the embassy, said in an e-mail to Reuters, without giving a specific date.

The US State Department withdrew consulate staff and their families in late January after the Chinese government put the city under lockdown to curb the spread of the virus.

Wuhan, a central Chinese city with a population of about 11 million, has accounted for the majority of China's coronavirus cases and deaths, though the epidemic has since subsided there and in other parts of the country.

Since apparently jumping to people in a Wuhan market selling wildlife, the coronavirus has spread globally, infecting more than seven million people and killing more than 410,000.

The US move met with a storm of Chinese social media criticism on Wednesday, according to The Global Times.

Some netizens demanded that the US curb the epidemic at home before Americans travelled to Wuhan. Others asked the Chinese government to impose a strict 21-day quarantine on embassy personnel and have them take multiple nucleic acid tests.

"Are you guys trying to escape your country? Wuhan is the single safest city in the world. It's much safer here than the whole US, with nationwide protests and ever growing coronavirus cases," one netizen commented.

There was even speculation that US diplomats were being sent to collect intelligence that would be used to criticise China.

However, some also voiced hope that the reopening of the consulate would mend strained Sino-US relations.

Professor Li Haidong of the Institute of International Relations of China Foreign Affairs University suggested that the strong reaction from netizens was in response to US stigmatising China and Wuhan, with President Donald Trump repeatedly calling the coronavirus a "Chinese virus".

Nevertheless, Prof Li told The Global Times the move to open the embassy could be a signal that the US recognised China's success in containing the virus.