University of North Carolina. Photo source: Facebook
Beijing: China has written to World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and submitted two non-papers titled “Doubtful Points about Fort Detrick (USAMRIID)” and “Coronavirus Research Conducted by Dr. Ralph Baric’s Team at University of North Carolina”, and an open letter signed by more than 25 million Internet users calling for an investigation into the Fort Detrick base.
The letter was written by Ambassador Chen Xu, Permanent Representative of China to the UN Office at Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland, on August 24, 2021.
Referring to the letter, Chinese foreign office Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said today that China’s position on the issue of global origins study was “consistent and clear”. While stressing that tracing the origins of the virus was a scientific issue, Wenbin said China always supported and will continue to participate in scientific origins study. He claimed that the conclusions and recommendations of the China-WHO joint study report had been recognized by the international community and the scientific community, and “must be respected and implemented”. Future global origins study should and can only be carried out on this basis, he emphasised.
The US had recently accused China of not providing detailed information on the origins of COVID-19. Wenbin today hit back saying that lack of information from China was just an excuse to cover up the US’ own failure in relying on intelligence to trace the origins of the virus.
“I want to tell the US side that Chinese and WHO experts have released a joint origins study report, which contains abundant authoritative and valuable information. The US is the country with the highest number of infections and deaths in the world, and the worst outward spread of the virus. The timeline of the COVID-19 outbreak in the US has been constantly revised to earlier dates, with the connection between Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina biological laboratories and the novel coronavirus shrouded by suspicions. The international community strongly asks the US side to be open and transparent and provide detailed information on this. The US side has been dodging these questions.”
He said the US Government draws on the intelligence apparatus to publish the so-called report on origins tracing, and added: “Its aim is not to get to the bottom of the origins of the virus, or to form a scientific report based on facts and scientific methods. What the US is really up to is to shift the responsibility of its failure in pandemic response domestically and scapegoat China.”
He said the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) had received WHO experts twice. “It is extremely unlikely that the novel coronavirus was leaked from the WIV — this is the clear conclusion of the China-WHO joint study report. Those who insist that the possibility of a lab-leak cannot be ruled out should investigate Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina in the principle of fairness and justice,” he stated.
Beijing charged that the international community and the American people had long raised serious concerns over the illegal, non-transparent and unsafe practices at the Fort Detrick base. “It is the center of US bio-military activities and USAMRIID is the main research entity there. USAMRIID has long been engaged in coronavirus research and modification. After the Institute was shut down because of serious safety incidents in 2019, disease with symptoms similar to that of COVID-19 broke out in the US. The US has not yet given any explanation on these problems to the international community and American people,” Wenbin said.
Referring to the University of North Carolina, he claimed that the US had been “falsely” accusing the WIV of causing the COVID-19 pandemic with its coronavirus researches. “However, it is the US who has sponsored and carried out more such researches than any other country. In particular, the Baric team leads the world in researches in this field, with extremely mature capability in synthesizing and modifying coronavirus. An investigation into Dr. Baric’s team and lab will help clarify whether such researches have created or can create SARS-CoV-2,” he said.
China also urged the US to stop using the origins study to seek “political manipulation”. Wenbin said if the US was bent on insisting the lab-leak theory, it should start with inviting WHO experts to launch a probe into Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina to find the source of the virus. “In the meantime, we hope the international community can work hand in hand to resist the backlash of politicization and bring the origins study back to the right track of scientific cooperation,” he added.
– global bihari bureau
