The search for the truth has become a blame game driven not by science but by superpower rivalry
By SUN XI
APRIL 14, 2023
An aerial view shows a laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in central China's Hubei province. Photo: AFP
Although the global Covid-19 pandemic has not completely ended, the post-Covid era is coming. Life in Singapore where I reside has long gone back to normal, and I have traveled back to China twice this year for business trips. There is hardly any trace of the pandemic, and people are just working and living as usual to enjoy their lives without talking about Covid-19 any more.
However, some people seem still to be obsessed with Covid-19. Most notably, the US Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed the “Covid-19 Origin Act of 2023” last month to “get to the bottom of Covid-19’s origins to help ensure we can better prevent future pandemics.”
But why did the United States not pass an “HIV/AIDS Origin Act” or “Swine Flu/H1N1 Origin Act” in the past? Obviously, because the human immunodeficiency virus did not originate in China, and H1N1 virus was first detected in the US.
President Biden stated that under the Act, his administration will review all classified information relating to Covid-19’s origins, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The main advocate of the Act, US Senator Josh Hawley, put it more bluntly: “The American [people] deserve to know the truth behind the origins of the pandemic and we must begin the process of holding China accountable.”
So the real goal of the Act is very clear: to prove the SARS-CoV-2 virus was leaked from the Wuhan lab and to blame China. Isn’t that against the “presumption of innocence,” a principle long held by the US itself?
Previously, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo firmly claimed that he had “a large amount of evidence” of the leak but eventually was unable to show anything concrete. Even today, US intelligence agencies are still divided over whether virus came from a lab leak or an animal.
If the US government really wants to know the origin of Covid-19, it should not ignore the appeal that its Fort Detrick lab in Frederick, Maryland, and 336 biological laboratories overseas should also be investigated by an independent third party led by the World Health Organization. Doing otherwise shows double standards applied on China and the US itself.
In his recent article “Navigating the new age of great-power competition,” veteran former Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan sharply pointed out that “the US-Chinese rivalry seems set to become the defining feature of international relations in the 21st century.”
He is right. Tracing the origin of Covid-19 should be a matter of science, but unfortunately it has become a blame game haunted by superpower rivalry. It seems that the US does not really care whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus was from China, but it just wants to use the issue to attack China further.
If so, the world may never be able to know the truth about the virus’ origin. If we still want to know the facts, we need to put geopolitics aside and leave the matter to scientists.
Sun Xi, a China-born alumnus of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, is an independent commentary writer based in Singapore. He is also founder and CEO of ESGuru, a Singapore-based consultancy firm specializing in environmental, social and governance issues.
Although the global Covid-19 pandemic has not completely ended, the post-Covid era is coming. Life in Singapore where I reside has long gone back to normal, and I have traveled back to China twice this year for business trips. There is hardly any trace of the pandemic, and people are just working and living as usual to enjoy their lives without talking about Covid-19 any more.
However, some people seem still to be obsessed with Covid-19. Most notably, the US Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed the “Covid-19 Origin Act of 2023” last month to “get to the bottom of Covid-19’s origins to help ensure we can better prevent future pandemics.”
But why did the United States not pass an “HIV/AIDS Origin Act” or “Swine Flu/H1N1 Origin Act” in the past? Obviously, because the human immunodeficiency virus did not originate in China, and H1N1 virus was first detected in the US.
President Biden stated that under the Act, his administration will review all classified information relating to Covid-19’s origins, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The main advocate of the Act, US Senator Josh Hawley, put it more bluntly: “The American [people] deserve to know the truth behind the origins of the pandemic and we must begin the process of holding China accountable.”
So the real goal of the Act is very clear: to prove the SARS-CoV-2 virus was leaked from the Wuhan lab and to blame China. Isn’t that against the “presumption of innocence,” a principle long held by the US itself?
Previously, former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo firmly claimed that he had “a large amount of evidence” of the leak but eventually was unable to show anything concrete. Even today, US intelligence agencies are still divided over whether virus came from a lab leak or an animal.
If the US government really wants to know the origin of Covid-19, it should not ignore the appeal that its Fort Detrick lab in Frederick, Maryland, and 336 biological laboratories overseas should also be investigated by an independent third party led by the World Health Organization. Doing otherwise shows double standards applied on China and the US itself.
In his recent article “Navigating the new age of great-power competition,” veteran former Singaporean diplomat Bilahari Kausikan sharply pointed out that “the US-Chinese rivalry seems set to become the defining feature of international relations in the 21st century.”
He is right. Tracing the origin of Covid-19 should be a matter of science, but unfortunately it has become a blame game haunted by superpower rivalry. It seems that the US does not really care whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus was from China, but it just wants to use the issue to attack China further.
If so, the world may never be able to know the truth about the virus’ origin. If we still want to know the facts, we need to put geopolitics aside and leave the matter to scientists.
Sun Xi, a China-born alumnus of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, is an independent commentary writer based in Singapore. He is also founder and CEO of ESGuru, a Singapore-based consultancy firm specializing in environmental, social and governance issues.
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