China lashed out at the US investigation into the origin of the coronavirus

05/27/2021 9:15 AM

• Clarín.com

• World

Updated 05/27/2021 9:15 AM

China on Thursday lashed out at the "dark history" of US intelligence services after President Joe Biden commissioned them to investigate the origins of the coronavirus.

Washington is reviewing its diplomatic position with China on issues such as trade, technology or human rights, while intensifying efforts to create with its Western partners a

diplomatic front against alleged Chinese aggression

.

On Wednesday, President Biden reopened the wounds between the two powers by ordering US intelligence agencies to inform him within 90 days of whether COVID-19 first emerged in China from an animal source or from a car accident. laboratory.

US President Joe Biden called for an investigation to discover the origin of the pandemic.

Photo: REUTER

The theory of a laboratory leak, initially put forward by Biden's predecessor Donald Trump, and later

dismissed as "highly unlikely"

by a delayed World Health Organization (WHO) mission to China, resurfaced in the last days, driven by Washington.

This did not go down well in Beijing, which on Thursday accused US intelligence of having "no credibility", in the words of its foreign spokesman, Zhao Lijian.

"What the United States has to do is follow in the footsteps of China and allow, in the hands of the World Health Organization (WHO), a

transparent investigation into the origin

of the pandemic in its territory," said Zhao, quoted by the local press.

According to China,

"politicizing" this issue will create "obstacles"

in future investigations into the virus, as well as being destined to once again cloud relations between the two powers.

Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Photo: XINHUA

The "motives and purposes of the Biden administration are clear," said Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, rejecting the need for a new investigation into the pandemic.

Beijing rejects the

theory that the virus may have emerged from a

virology

laboratory

in Wuhan and accuses the United States of peddling "conspiracies" and politicizing the pandemic.

"The world has long known the dark history of US intelligence services," he said, referring to the baseless US allegations of weapons of mass destruction that justified its invasion of Iraq.

Going back to the theory of a laboratory leak "is disrespectful to science ... and also an alteration in the global fight against the pandemic," Zhao said.

Despite this, the idea that the virus came out of a Wuhan laboratory

is gaining more and more followers

in the United States.

Part of the WHO team that went to China in January to investigate the origin of the pandemic.

Photo: AFP

Citing a report from US intelligence services,

The Wall Street Journal

reported Sunday that three people from the Wuhan Institute of Virology were hospitalized with a seasonal illness in November 2019, a month before Beijing revealed the existence of a mysterious pneumonia outbreak.

The natural origin hypothesis - supported as the most likely by the WHO expert team that visited China - holds that the virus arose in bats and then passed to humans, probably through an intermediary species.

This theory was widely accepted early in the pandemic, but over time scientists have not found a virus in bats or other animals that matches the genetic signature of SARS-CoV-2.

China wants to put aside the search for the origin of the pandemic, which is being promoted by Western countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom, and

wants to focus on its economic recovery

after managing to control the virus within its borders.

In this sense, the Commerce Ministry on Thursday welcomed the talks with Washington that are part of an agreement to end the trade war.

The two countries signed the so-called "phase 1" agreement in January 2020, in which Beijing pledged to

increase its purchases of American products

and services by at least $ 200 billion during 2020 and 2021.

Since it was detected in China, the pandemic has killed

more than 3.5 million people in the world

, according to the latest AFP balance figures.

The situation is uneven according to the regions.

In Latin America, which adds more than a million deaths and 32.3 million infections, Uruguay on Wednesday exceeded 4,000 deaths from covid-19 and Argentina, which is going through the worst moment of the pandemic with more than 75,500 deaths, received more of a million doses of AstraZeneca and Sputnik V.

For their part, in Australia, authorities announced Thursday that five million residents of Melbourne, the country's second city, and its region

will be confined to contain an outbreak

.

Source: agencies

Look also

Joe Biden asked the intelligence services for a report in 90 days on the origin of the coronavirus

The US claims that three scientists from the Wuhan laboratory presented symptoms of coronavirus before the start of the pandemic