Beijing: China today slammed the USA for “disinformation” about COVID-19 origins tracing and claimed that a report released by Representative Michael MacCaul, Lead Republican of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, was based on the “concocted lies and distorted facts without providing evidence”.
MacCaul had released the report on August 2, 2021 that claimed that there was a “preponderance of evidence” that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sometime before September 2019. It also alleged that the WIV, aided by US experts and Chinese and US government funds, were conducting gain-of-function research.
China claimed that the report was “not credible or scientific”. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said what the relevant US congressmen have done “smears and slanders” China in pursuit of political gains.
“We express categorical opposition to and strong condemnation of such despicable acts that have no moral bottom line,” the spokesperson said.
Referring to a China-World Health Organization (WHO) joint expert team’s visit to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in February 2021, the spokesperson claimed the team had in-depth and candid exchanges with experts there. “Members of the joint expert team spoke highly of the Institute’s openness and transparency, and reached a major conclusion in the joint study report that the allegation of lab leaking is extremely unlikely,” the spokesperson said.
China further pointed out that in 2003, the US side used a test tube of laundry powder as evidence for Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction, and stated: “One needs not look far for a lesson, and the international community should not let such a thing happen again.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry insisted that it must be pointed out that, the US side’s political manipulation of origins tracing has dawn overwhelming rejection from the international community. “As of now, 70 countries have voiced opposition to politicizing origins tracing and emphasized the importance of upholding the joint China-WHO study report via sending letters to the WHO Director-General and issuing statements. It shows that clear-eyed people over the world can tell right and wrong. The US should listen to these objective and impartial voices,” it claimed.
China further reiterated its demand that the US government should release at the earliest the medical records of those infected in the unexplained outbreaks of respiratory disease in Virginia and the large-scale EVALI in Wisconsin and Maryland in 2019, and of US military personnel who fell ill during the Military World Games in Wuhan, and to allow a thorough international probe into Fort Detrick lab and the 200-plus US biological labs overseas.
“As to gain of function research on coronaviruses, the US has provided more funding and conducted more experiments in this area than anyone else. Why don’t the congressmen find out if there is such research at home and whether or not it may create the novel coronavirus?” the spokesperson stated and urged the US to “respect facts and science and focus on fighting COVID-19 and saving lives, instead of engaging in political manipulation under the pretext of the epidemic and shifting the blame to others”.
– global bihari bureau
