The Chinese government on Thursday slammed the United States (US) for politicising the COVID-19 pandemic, following Washington’s announcement that its intelligence agencies would look further into the origins of the deadly disease, and examine the possibility of a lab leak in Wuhan.
“The joint WHO-China study team report clearly states that ‘a laboratory origin of the pandemic was considered to be extremely unlikely’. This is an authoritative and official conclusion based on science,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said during a regular press conference. However, the official further noted that the US did not “care about facts or truth,” but was focused on using the international health crisis “to pursue stigmatization and political manipulation to shift the blame.”
Noting the US’ own abysmal performance in handling the outbreak within its borders, Zhao said that Washington was now just looking to use China as a “scapegoat.” “They are being disrespectful to science, irresponsible to people's lives, and counter-productive to concerted global efforts to fight the virus,” he added.
The friction between the two rivals comes in the face of increasing debate over the role of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the outbreak. Though the theory centred around COVID-19 leaking from a lab—which gained significant momentum during Donald Trump’s presidency—has been largely dismissed by public health experts, recent revelations about the institution’s researchers becoming sick “symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses” and needing hospital care in November 2019 (which was well before China first reported the first case of COVID-19) has refuelled concerns about the origins of the deadly virus.
US President Joe Biden, in his statement on Wednesday, acknowledged that while there was still not a “definitive conclusion” on the question, the IC had “coalesced around two likely scenarios.” “While two elements in the IC leans toward the former scenario and one leans more toward the latter—each with low or moderate confidence—the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other,” the President said. He further stressed that the US will “keep working with like-minded partners around the world to press China to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation and to provide access to all relevant data and evidence.”
In response, Zhao fiercely criticized the US intelligence community’s ability to conduct a transparent investigation into the matter, citing its “notorious track record,” and pointing to the “test tube of laundry powder cited as evidence for Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction and the staged “White Helmets” video cited as evidence for chemical weapon attack in Syria.” “Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo even boasted, “I was the CIA director, we lied, we cheated, we stole, we had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment,” Zhao said. “How can anyone trust the findings from an “investigation” conducted by such an intelligence organ with no credibility to speak of?”
Biden’s plan has opened a new rift in the administration’s already tense relationship with China, as the nations continue to lock horns on issues related to trade, human rights, technology, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Indo-Pacific.
China Slams US Over COVID-19 Origin Probe
The issue has opened a new rift in the Biden administration’s already tense relationship with China.
May 28, 2021
SOURCE: REUTERS