Communist China has rejected the latest request by the World Health Organization (WHO) to allow further probes into the origins of the Wuhan coronavirus.
In response to the WHO’s plea, Beijing repeated its bizarre claim that the Wuhan virus originated somewhere else before making its appearance in central China. On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian’s told the global hearth agency to focus “further research around earlier cases globally and further understanding the role of cold chains and frozen foods in the transmission of the virus.”
On Friday, the WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged China to cooperate in the second phase of the investigation into the origins of the global pandemic that began in the Chinese province of Hubei.
The plea came amid Chinese attempts to withhold critical data needed to analyze the origin and the spread of the Wuhan virus. We are “asking actually China to be transparent, open and cooperate, especially on the information, raw data that we asked for at the early days of the pandemic,” the WHO chief said on Friday.
The Hong Kong daily South China Morning Post reported Chinese foreign ministry’s response:
Beijing says the World Health Organization’s proposal for further research into the origins of Covid-19 is “inconsistent” with its position and the focus of the next phase of inquiry should move away from China.The WHO plan was announced on Friday, a day after director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged Beijing to cooperate with the second phase of the study and to be transparent, saying scientists still lacked enough raw data on infections and possible cases in the early days of the outbreak.Beijing responded that the proposal was under review by Chinese experts. On Monday foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said the next phase of investigation should be led by WHO member states and agreed upon through consultation, and that the search for possible early cases should be expanded worldwide.“The proposal for the second phase of origin tracing by the WHO Secretariat is inconsistent with the position of the Chinese side and also of many countries,” Zhao said at a regular press briefing.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) also reacted angrily to the proposed probe. The “WHO chief succumbs to US-led West’s pressure in virus origins remarks,” the Maoist mouthpiece Global Times lashed out on Friday.
The mainstream media blew up when President Donald Trump in May 2020 suggested that COVID-19 may have originated in a Chinese government lab. The New York Times, The Washington Post and other media outlets rejected the claim and accused the former president of racism for highlighting China’s culpability in the spread of the pandemic.
New findings, however, give credence to President Trump’s assertions. Even the BBC, which also dismissed the Wuhan-lab theory, has admitted that many in the scientific community supported the claim that the virus may have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. “But in recent weeks the controversial claim that the pandemic might have leaked from a Chinese laboratory – once dismissed by many as a fringe conspiracy theory – has been gaining traction,” the British broadcaster noted in May.
The former president feels vindicated amid mounting evidence in support of his long-held position. “The media, the Democrats and the so-called experts are now finally admitting what I first said 13 months ago, the evidence demonstrates that the virus originated in a Chinese government lab. Couldn’t say it,” he declared at a Republican Party Convention in Greenville (NC) last month.
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