Foreign ministry spokesman attacks intelligence agencies’ ‘deplorable’ track record of falsification and says their use is ‘ironclad proof of politicisation’
The report, ordered by Joe Biden, could not determine whether the virus infected humans through natural contact or as the result of a lab accident
Beijing has dismissed a US review into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying the use of intelligence agencies was “ironclad proof of politicisation”.
In the 18-page report, the US intelligence community concluded that the coronavirus had not been developed as a biological weapon, but could not determine if it had infected humans as a result of contact with animals or from a laboratory accident.
“The use of intelligence agencies to trace the origins is in itself an ironclad proof of politicisation,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said. “The US intelligence services have a deplorable track record, with their falsification and deception tactics known by the world.”
He also urged the US to stop smearing China and to open its biological labs at US military base Fort Detrick for investigations.
“The origins study of the novel coronavirus is a serious and complex scientific issue, which should and can only be carried out by global scientists in cooperation,” Wang said.
He was speaking days after the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the National Intelligence Council jointly released a declassified version of the findings from a 90-day review ordered by President Joe Biden.
The report said: “The Intelligence Community judges they will be unable to provide a more definitive explanation for the origin of Covid-19 unless new information allows them to determine the specific pathway for initial natural contact with an animal or to determine that a laboratory in Wuhan was handling Sars-CoV-2 or a close progenitor virus before Covid-19 emerged.”
It also accused China of not cooperating with attempts to find the cause, saying: “Beijing, however, continues to hinder the global investigation, resist sharing information, and blame other countries, including the United State.
“These actions reflect, in part, China’s government’s own uncertainty about where an investigation could lead as well as its frustration the international community is using the issue to exert political pressure on China.”
Beijing has insisted that while Wuhan is where the disease was first detected, it is not necessarily where the virus originated.
It has also denied that the virus originated in a laboratory in the city and in July rejected the World Health Organization’s proposals for the second phase of its investigations into the virus’s origins, which included formal laboratory audits.
The search for the virus origins has become another arena for the confrontation between the US and China.
Beijing regards calls for an +investigation into the origins and China’s handling of the initial outbreak as politically motivated.
It has pushed instead for the next phase of investigations to focus on other countries, including the biomedical research laboratory at the Fort Detrick military base in Maryland as well as more than 200 US overseas bases.
In a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit on Saturday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus that virus origin tracing “should be conducted in an objective, scientific and responsible manner” and that the global health body should treat all its members equally.
“China is willing to use this as a basis to discuss future cooperation with the WHO,” he said, according to a statement by the Chinese foreign ministry.
On Sunday, foreign ministry spokesman Wang said the US was undermining global scientific cooperation on origin-tracing.
“At present, the US should stop all scapegoating and blame-shifting moves and focus instead on domestic efforts and global cooperation in fighting Covid-19,” he said.
“It should stop political manipulation … should stop attacking and smearing China, respond to the legitimate concerns of the international community, receive WHO experts‘ visits, and open up its biological labs at Fort Detrick and biological experiment bases.”
