China on Tuesday (Dec 31) insisted that it has already shared information on COVID-19, aka Coronavirus, "without holding anything back". Beijing's statement comes after the World Health Organization (WHO) urged the nation to share more data and also grant access to understand the virus's still shady origins.

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In a statement on Monday, the WHO implored China to share more information and said that the country had a "moral and scientific imperative" to do so.

China's defence

Beijing, however, claims it has made the "largest contribution to global origin tracing research". 

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Defending its transparency, the nation's foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said, "Five years ago... China immediately shared epidemic information and viral gene sequence with the WHO and the international community."

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"Without holding anything back, we shared our prevention, control and treatment experience," she added, addressing reporters at a regular press briefing.

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In December 2020, the first case of the dreaded coronavirus was reported from the Chinese city of Wuhan. In the next two or so years, the virus killed millions of people worldwide, devastated economies, and overwhelmed health systems.

Since then, the WHO has repeatedly criticised China for its lack of transparency and cooperation with international players in the investigation into Covid origins. 

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In 2021, a team of specialists led by WHO and accompanied by Chinese colleagues conducted an investigation into the virus' origins inside China, but have been unable to return to the country ever since, something WHO has criticised Beijing over.

However, Mao said China was "willing to continue working with various parties to promote global scientific origin tracing, and to make active efforts to prevent potential infectious diseases in the future".

She also said that "more and more clues" pointed "to Covid-19's origins having a global scope".

(With inputs from agencies)