A road in Guyana that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticized and attributed to Chinese construction was actually not built by any Chinese companies, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday.

Spokesperson Guo Jiakun made the remarks at a regular news briefing in response to a media query about Rubio's recent complaint about a poorly constructed road in Guyana.

"According to what I learned, the road project the U.S. side referred to was not built by any Chinese companies and the Guyanese side has made clarifications on that," Guo said. "I wonder why Mr. Secretary of State told falsehoods like this?"

"They'd better do something tangible and deliver for countries in the region rather than vilify China and sow discord by distorting the facts," the spokesperson said.