China says that the order shows the US “doesn’t care about facts and truth, nor is it interested in serious scientific origin tracing”
Beijing has accused the United States of playing politics and shirking its responsibility by calling for a new investigation into the true origins of the COVID-19 pandemic that was first detected in China in late 2019.
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, said that US President Joe Biden‘s order has shown that the US “doesn’t care about facts and truth, nor is it interested in serious scientific origin tracing”.
This comes after China is set to report first population decline within the country since records began in 1949 despite the relaxation of the nation’s strict family planning policies, that was meant to reverse the falling birth rate of the most populous country in the world.
He claimed that the US “wants to use the epidemic to engage in stigmatisation and political manipulation, and to shirk responsibility”.
“This is disrespectful to science and irresponsible to people’s lives, and moreover, it undermines the global unity of efforts to fight the epidemic,” Mr Zhao added.
Earlier in the week, President Biden told US intelligence officials to redouble their efforts to investigate the pandemic’s origins, including any possibility that the trail might lead to a laboratory in China.
Following months of minimising the possibility of that being a fringe theory, the Biden administration is joining in with the worldwide pressure currently on China to be more open about the coronavirus outbreak.
He directed US national laboratories to assist in the investigation and the intelligence community to prepare a list of specific queries to be ready for the Chinese government.
And China has since been urged to cooperate with international probes into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Joe Mr Biden hopes to head off the Republican complaints that the President has not been tough enough to press the Chinese Government on the alleged obstruction.
This comes after John Cena, the WWE star and actor, has apologised to China for saying Taiwan is a country; China recognises Taiwan as a Chinese territory. Cena had described Taiwan as a country within a promotional video for the latest instalment in the Fast and Furious franchise of films
Republicans, including the former US President Donald Trump, have promoted the theory that the coronavirus emerged from a Chinese laboratory rather than being transmitted naturally through human contact with an infected animal in the city of Wuhan.
Following the President’s comments, Mr Zhao said that the US must open itself up to investigations into its biological laboratories, including at the military base, Fort Detrick.
“The US side claims that it wants China to participate in a comprehensive, transparent, evidence-based international investigation,” he said.
“We would like to ask the US side to do the same as China and immediately cooperate with the World Health Organisation on origin tracing research in a scientific manner.”