The Chinese government — which has defied efforts by international inspectors to examine labs in the country or share detailed information about COVID-19 — still claimed on Tuesday that it has been “open and transparent” in the search to determine how the global pandemic originated.
China had “shared the most data and research results on virus tracing and made important contributions to global virus tracing research,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning Mao told reporters after the US Energy Department assessed the coronavirus leaked from a lab in the city of Wuhan.
Mao went on to demand the US answer questions about its own biological labs and repeated a conspiracy theory pushed by China that the deadly disease was developed and leaked from Fort Detrick, a military installation in Maryland.
“Politicizing the issue of virus tracing will not smear China but will only damage the US’ own credibility,” Mao said, responding to a reporter asking about her reaction to US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns demanding more transparency from Beijing.
“Mr. Burns needs to do more to help improve China-US relations and promote mutual understanding between the two peoples, rather than the opposite,” Mao said.
The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the Energy Department had concluded with “low confidence” that the pandemic, which has killed almost 7 million people worldwide and more than 1 million in the US, accidentally emerged from a lab.
In response to the report, Burns said that the ruling Chinese Communist Party needs to “be more honest about what happened there three years ago in Wuhan with the origin of the COVID-19 crisis.”
He also called for China to be more cooperative with the World Health Organization.
But noting the strained relationship between Beijing and Washington over the Chinese spy balloon that flew over much of the US before being shot down Feb. 4 off the coast of South Carolina, Burns remarked that China is trying to turn the tables on the US.
“We’re now in this surreal moment where the Chinese, who I think lost the debate over the balloon globally, lost influence and credibility around the world because of what they’ve done — they’re now blaming this on us,” Burns said.
“It’s a little bit Orwellian. And it’s a little bit frustrating, because I think everybody knows the truth here,” he continued.
China and its ruling Communist Party will be the focus of a Tuesday night hearing of a brand-new House select committee examining the rivalry between the two nations.
The hearing is titled “The Chinese Communist Party’s Threat to America.”