China pointed its finger at the United States for originating COVID-19 on Wednesday, claiming America was attempting to “shift the blame” after President Trump declared the deadly disease was leaked from a Wuhan lab.
The communist regime argued that “substantial evidence” suggested that COVID might have come from the US earlier than the outbreak in China while insisting the lab leak theory was “extremely unlikely” in a white paper.
“The US government, instead of facing squarely its failure in response to Covid-19 and reflecting on its shortcomings, has tried to shift the blame and divert people’s attention by shamelessly politicizing SARS-CoV-2 origins tracing,” Chinese officials complained.
The report also claimed COVID-19 was circulating around the US earlier than it was officially determined.
The Chinese accusations come after the White House revamped its COVID-19 information earlier this month to push out the assertion that COVID-19 leaked out of a lab in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“A lab-related incident involving gain-of-function research is the most likely the origin of COVID-19,” according to a section on the new White House webpage.
“Current government mechanisms for overseeing this dangerous gain-of-function research are incomplete, severely convoluted, and lack global applicability.”
The CIA in January said the pandemic was more likely started in a lab instead of nature after it previously couldn’t reach a determination.
But the agency cautioned it had “low confidence” and made clear the lab origin and natural origin both remain plausible.
A House panel, as well as other federal agencies like the FBI, reached similar conclusions about the lab leak theory.
But China stressed in the white paper that according to a past joint study conducted with the World Health Organization, it found COVID-19 was probably transmitted from bats to humans through another animal.
The Chinese report, which also delved into prevention and control of the disease, additionally bashed the US for not doing more to combat COVID-19.
“It has severely undermined joint international efforts in the fight against the pandemic and become a weak link in global public health governance,” China said — though the country has also faced accusations it covered up the severity of the virus in the early months.
“The US cannot continue to turn a deaf ear to the numerous questions over its conduct,” Chinese officials wrote in part of the report.
With Post wires
