China opposes politicizing study of virus origins

The Chinese government has always supported the scientific tracing of the coronavirus origins, but opposes politicizing the study or using it as a tool to shift blame, said Zeng Yixin, deputy head of China's National Health Commission.

Zeng made the remarks on Sunday in response to a US intelligence community report on COVID-19 origins, which does not rule out either natural exposure or laboratory accident as the origin of SARS-CoV-2.

Zeng said the fact that the US origin-tracing report was released by the intelligence community, not by professional medical institutions, is itself ironic. He voiced support for scientists to conduct studies on the origins of the coronavirus in multiple countries around the world, including the US.

US intelligence agencies remain divided on the origins of the coronavirus but believe China's leaders did not know about the virus before the start of the pandemic, according to results released on Friday of a review ordered by President Joe Biden.

According to an unclassified summary, four members of the US intelligence community say with low confidence that the virus was initially transmitted from an animal to a human. A fifth intelligence agency believes with moderate confidence that the first human infection was linked to a lab. Analysts do not believe the virus was developed as a bioweapon and most agencies believe the virus was not genetically engineered.

The scientific consensus remains that the virus most likely migrated from animals in what's known as a zoonotic transmission. So-called "spillover events" occur in nature, and there are at least two coronaviruses that evolved in bats and caused human epidemics, SARS1 and MERS.

On Saturday, China's vice foreign minister Ma Zhaoxu slammed the report. "It is a mendacious report made up for political purposes. There is no scientific basis or credibility in it," he said.

Ma reiterated that origins tracing of COVID-19 is a complex issue of science which should and can only be undertaken by scientists around the world through joint research.

The United States, however, disregards science and facts. It is instead obsessed with political manipulation and origins tracing by the intelligence community. Without providing any evidence, the United States has cooked up one story after another to defame and accuse China. The aim is to use origin-tracing to shift blame onto China and spread the political virus, Ma said. "The deployment of the intelligence community in origins tracing is in itself a compelling evidence of the politicization of the issue," he said.

The United States' attempts to politicize origin-tracing have found no support and met widespread opposition from the international community, according to Ma.

More than 80 countries have written to the WHO director-general, issued statements, or sent diplomatic notes to voice their objection to the politicization attempts and call for the Joint Report by the WHO-China joint study team to be upheld.

Over 300 political parties, social organizations and think tanks from more than 100 countries and regions have submitted a joint statement to the WHO Secretariat opposing the politicization of origins tracing, Ma said, adding that over 25 million Chinese have signed an open letter asking for an inquiry into the Fort Detrick base.