On Sunday (October 31, 2021), Beijing slammed a US intelligence report on the origins of the Covid-19 outbreak, calling it “political and false” and urged the US to “stop assaulting” China.
The Chinese foreign ministry’s reaction came just days after the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence revealed a more detailed version of its findings from President Joe Biden’s 90-day study.
According to the study, intelligence agencies will not be able to make a better judgment on whether the virus spread through animal-to-human transmission or through a lab leak without additional information.
It went on to say that China’s cooperation would almost certainly be required to achieve a definitive conclusion on origins, despite the fact that Beijing continues to “obstruct the global inquiry.”
According to the so-called lab-leak scenario, the virus spread from a research center in Wuhan, China’s central metropolis, where it was initially identified. The notion has yet to be proven, and China has frequently dismissed it.
China had expressed firm objection to early findings presented in the summary report in August, according to foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin in a statement released on Sunday.
“No matter how many times this report is released or how many different versions are manufactured, the fact that it is wholly political and fake cannot be changed,” Wang added.
He went on to say that tapping intelligence agencies in origin-tracing attempts were “ironclad proof” of politicization, and he urged the US to “stop assaulting and smearing China.”
After a delayed and very politicized visit by a World Health Organization team of foreign experts failed to identify how the virus first broke out, Beijing has been pressured to launch a new investigation into the pandemic’s beginnings.
Chinese officials, on the other hand, have opposed this, claiming that demands for more information are motivated by politics.
In August, Biden said that China was hiding “important information” about Covid-19’s origins and that Chinese officials had worked to prevent international investigators from accessing the site.
Despite the fact that Biden’s assessment was initiated as the lab-leak scenario gathered traction, most agencies felt the virus was not genetically modified, according to the article.
