US accusations against China on Covid-19 origin-tracing are totally groundless

LETTERS
MALAYSIAN STAR
Tuesday, 17 Aug 2021

THE United States has been hyping up the so-called "lab leak" conspiracy theory recently and is once again shifting the blame on the origins of Covid-19 to China. In fact, at the very beginning of the global outbreak of Covid-19, the administration of US former president Donald Trump had already made up wave after wave of conspiracy theories to smear China with the groundless presumption of guilt in an attempt to cover up their incompetence in coping with the pandemic.

With the worsening pandemic situation compounding the presidential election last year, the US was focused on dealing with its domestic problems. However, as the situation is getting better to some extent, the Biden administration is beginning to create a fuss again over tracing the origins of Covid-19 and overtly targeting China as the culprit.

The US is continuously and wantonly attacking China, politicising the pandemic and stigmatising the virus. The purpose is to shift responsibility for their botched pandemic response and achieve the political motive of discrediting and suppressing China.

Anyone with an ounce of objectivity can see clearly that the US is once again playing dirty tricks, like using a test tube of laundry powder as evidence for Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction, in peddling the propaganda of holding China liable for the Covid-19 outbreak.

Although it is clear to the US that it will not be able to defeat China this time, it is still trying to sabotage China’s image. By doing so, it is not only undermining global cooperation in the fight against the pandemic, seriously disrupting global economic recovery, but also failing to help improve its domestic Covid-19 situation or save lives. The US will only harm itself as well as others! This game is not worth the candle.

Accusations and attacks by the US against China on Covid-19 origin-tracing are totally groundless. Origin-tracing is a complex scientific matter requiring science-based cooperation. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, China has upheld the principles of openness, transparency, science and cooperation in tracing the origins of the virus. We maintained close communication with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and many countries, and provided great support to the work on origin-tracing.

Last year, China organised a multidisciplinary team to work on origin-tracing despite being engaged in arduous epidemic prevention and control tasks. China took the lead in collaborating with WHO on global origin-tracing and had twice invited WHO experts to China for origin-tracing research. In particular, leading experts from 10 countries, including the US, United Kingdom, Japan and Australia, formed a joint team of experts with their Chinese counterparts earlier this year. They carried out a 28-day joint research effort in China. China gave full support to the expert team.

We have done our best to coordinate relevant organisations to meet the requirements of the experts, who visited places they wanted to visit and talked to everybody they wanted to talk to.

They analysed data, made field visits and conducted interviews and exchanges together, and they steadily formed a consensus based on science.

On March 30, WHO released the report of their study, which concluded that the pathway of lab leak is extremely unlikely, and that no massive outbreak was found in Wuhan prior to December 2019. They also recommended further research on earlier cases around the world and further study of the role of cold-chain and cold-chain products in viral transmission.

These important conclusions were reached by following WHO procedures and rigorous scientific methodology. They are authoritative and scientific, and have been universally recognised by the international community.

The report pointed out the direction and laid the basis for the next step of joint studies on the origins of the virus in various countries and localities under a global framework.

China’s open and transparent attitude on the issue of Covid-19 origin-tracing has also been affirmed by experts from various countries.

However, the US government chose to reject the report in defiance of authoritative scientific research conclusions, and even ordered its intelligence community to come up with a conclusion on the origin of the virus within 90 days. The US has turned the research with scientists as main actors into a trick manipulated by some politicians, and tried to peddle intelligence-led origin-tracing and the presumption of guilt.

On the issue of origin-tracing, some people in the US may indeed have a guilty conscience. In June, Vanity Fair revealed an internal warning from the US government against an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus that could open a can of worms. In fact, the US has remained silent on the serious concerns raised by the international community about the Fort Detrick bio-lab and the more than 200 biological laboratories overseas.

The US must understand that the international community, including China, has every reason to raise questions about the Fort Detrick bio-lab and demand clarification and explanation, and also call on WHO to conduct a thorough investigation on it. The US should prove itself responsible and start revealing the truth to the world instead of muddying the water.

People can tell right from wrong. Politicising Covid-19 origin-tracing undermines solidarity of the international community and interferes with the joint efforts to fight the pandemic. The international community strongly opposes the attempt to politicise the study of the Covid-19 origins. Nearly 70 countries have expressed opposition to the politicisation of origin-tracing while supporting the China-WHO joint mission report by writing letters to the WHO director-general, issuing statements and sending notes. On Aug 2, more than 300 political parties, civil society organisations and think tanks from over 100 countries and regions submitted a joint statement to the WHO Secretariat, calling for WHO to carry out global virus origin-tracing research in an objective and fair manner, and stating their resolute stand against politicising the virus origin-tracing issue.

More and more experts and scholars are speaking out against the spread of political virus. Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University in the US, wrote that origin-tracing should not be used to blame China.

Pamela Bjorkman, a professor of biology at California Institute of Technology, explained why she co-signed an open letter to the journal Science calling for investigations into the "lab leak theory". She thought "the letter would have the effect of promoting more funding for searching for natural viruses in animal reservoirs" and "did not anticipate that the letter would be used to promote the lab origin hypothesis." Looking back, she felt she had acted "perhaps naively", she said.

Many organisations and individuals from Malaysia have spoken out to criticise the US for politicising the origin-tracing of Covid-19 in various ways. For example, a local daily published an article on July 29 pointing out that the US has interfered with international cooperation in the Covid-19 origin investigation by politicising it, and there is no legal basis to make China bear legal responsibility for the pandemic.

At present, the overall situation of the global pandemic remains complex and serious, and the daily number of new confirmed cases is still high in many countries, including Malaysia.

Covid-19 origin-tracing is a race between science and the virus, and it is a serious and urgent scientific work. Origin-tracing should not be infected by political viruses. It should not be used as a tool to blame, suppress and contain a certain country, let alone split the international community.

As the Malay saying goes, "Bersatu kita teguh, bercerai kita roboh (United we stand, divided we fall).” Only when we unite will we be able to effectively and truly curb the spread of the virus and restore a prosperous, harmonious, and peaceful life to people around the world.

As a responsible country, China is willing to work with the international community to jointly safeguard the scientific nature of the origin study, jointly resist the retrogressive trend of politicising the issue and maintain a sound atmosphere for global anti-pandemic cooperation.

CHINESE CONSUL GENERAL

Penang