US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo continued the Trump administration’s offensive against the Chinese government, reiterating his claim that the coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab. On Wednesday, Pompeo said, “We still continue to implore the Chinese government to turn over the samples, to allow Westerners in to look at those labs.”
He doubled down on his criticism of the “authoritarian” Chinese government’s delayed response, saying that “We know that the Chinese knew about this at least by December and didn’t act fast enough and the World Health Organization at the behest of the Chinese failed to declare this a pandemic in a timely fashion”.
Pompeo implored China to be more transparent, referring to how American journalists were “kicked out” of the country and how Chinese whistleblowers were silenced when they tried to raise alarm bells when the virus was first emerging.
In March, China’s Foreign Ministry announced that it was revoking the press credentials of American journalists from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, barring them from working in China, Hong Kong, and Macau. Furthermore, Beijing also declared five US media outlets–Voice of America, The Times, The Journal, The Post, and Time magazine as government functionaries. These moves came in retaliation to similar actions by the Trump organization against Chinese state-owned news agencies in the US. In addition, doctors like Li Wenliang and Ai Fen have been silenced by authorities for “disturbing social atmosphere”, “making false comments”, and fear-mongering.
In response, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Pompeo “doesn’t have any evidence” that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab. She added, “I think this matter should be handed to scientists and medical professionals, and not politicians who lie for their own domestic political ends.” She urged the US to “stop… shifting the focus to China”, saying that it should seek to “handle its domestic affairs properly first” by “controlling the US’ domestic pandemic spread”.
The World Health Organization (WHO), too, has said that US claims about the origin of the virus are “speculative”. Michael Ryan, the Executive Director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, said, “We have not received any data or specific evidence from the US government relating to the purported origin of the virus.”
Curiously, Pompeo and Trump’s claims of the virus having originated in a Wuhan lab are not corroborated by US government intelligence and medical experts. On Tuesday, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley, said “the weight of evidence” pointed to natural transmission. In addition, epidemiologist and director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci told National Geographic that all evidence so far “strongly indicates” a natural origin. He said, “A number of very qualified evolutionary biologists have said that everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus] evolved in nature and then jumped species.”
Other states, such as Australia, have questioned Trump’s push to link COVID-19 to a Wuhan lab. Prime Minister Scott Morrison worries that it impedes efforts to eliminate dangerous wildlife wet markets, particularly given that there is no strong evidence for the Trump administration to make such claims.
Nevertheless, there exists a shroud of suspicion over China’s head. The WHO is still waiting for an invitation from China to allow it to investigate the origins of the virus. However, China has thus far refused to let any foreign experts or investigators enter their country. In addition, there are multiple reports that regional health officials have destroyed lab samples in Wuhan, and completely cleared and sanitized of the city’s seafood market, leaving no chance of any cross-examination or study.
The US has also criticized the WHO, with President Trump calling it “China-centric” and withdrawing funding from the organization. Trump lambasted the body for failing to “adequately obtain, vet, and share information” about the outbreak in a “timely and transparent fashion”. The United States is the largest overall donor to the WHO, contributing more than $400 million in 2019, roughly 15% of the organization’s budget. In fact, Pompeo has suggested that the US may create its own agency to deal with international health operations.
Trump has long chided the ability of multilateral organizations to enact meaningful change. In the past, he has talked about the “underperforming”, “weak”, and “incompetent” United Nations and how it is “not a friend to freedom” or the United States. In fact, in a 2018 speech at the UN General Assembly, Trump boldly proclaimed, “We reject the ideology of globalism.”
As the US turns inwards, this crisis has also undone much of the hard-won progress in US-China trade relations. In January, the two parties signed “phase one” of a new trade deal following a protracted trade war. However, during the ongoing pandemic, the US Department of State began working with the Department of Commerce to develop a plan to shift global industrial supply chains from China. This potentially and most likely signals a re-ignition of the trade war.
Image Source: Just The News
US Turns Inwards, Swipes at China & WHO, Ignores Advice of Local Experts & Global Allies
May 7, 2020
IMAGE SOURCE: ALEX WONG / GETTY IMAGES