China needs to be ‘more honest’ on origins of COVID-19, says US ambassador; Beijing retorts

The US ambassador to China said on Monday (February 27) Beijing must be “more honest” about the origins of COVID-19. This comes after the US Energy Department report concluded that the pandemic may have been a Chinese laboratory leak, as per media reports.A similar claim was made by the FBI in a report two years ago where they determined, albeit with “moderate confidence”, that the virus was part of a lab leak.The next day, China responded by saying that it has been "open and transparent" with its search for the virus' origins.

Beijing needed to “be more honest about what happened three years ago in Wuhan with the origin of the COVID-19 crisis,” ambassador Nicholas Burns said, referring to the Chinese city where the first cases in connection with the virus were reported. The remarks were also made in the context of strengthening the World Health Organization (WHO) and pushing Beijing to play a more active role in the organisation during a US Chamber of Commerce event.

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The recent claim on the virus origin, made in a classified intelligence report which was provided to the White House and key lawmakers in Congress, was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The US energy department’s report alleged that the pandemic likely began with a virus escaping from a Chinese lab.

However, Beijing has rejected these claims and accused the US of “politicising” origin-tracing of the virus and asked it to “stop smearing China” by rehashing the “‘lab leak’ narrative”. These remarks were made by the ChineseForeign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning during her daily press briefing on Tuesday. Mao also said Beijing has "shared the most data and research results on virus tracing and made important contributions to global virus tracing research", reported Associated Press.

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Media reports meanwhile said that the department's conclusion was made with “low confidence.” The National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said there is no definitive conclusion on the Covid origin theory. “What the US President (Joe Biden) wants is facts. He wants the whole government designed to get those facts and that’s what we are doing. And we’re not just there yet,” said Kirby, during a press briefing, on Monday.

In an interview with CNN, the Biden administration’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan also said there is a range of views in the intelligence community about the origins of the pandemic. He added, “A number of them have said they just don't have enough information”.

(With inputs from agencies)

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