On Aug. 17 2021, Chinese Consul General in Penang Mr. Lu Shiwei published a signed article regarding the COVID-19 origin-tracing titled “US Accusations Against China on COVID-19 Origin-Tracing Are Totally Groundless” in The Star, an English-language media in Malaysia.
The article pointed out that the United States keeps wantonly attacking China, politicizing the pandemic, and stigmatizing the virus. The purpose of the U.S. is to shift responsibility for their botched pandemic response and achieve the political motive of discrediting and suppressing China. By doing so, the U.S. not only undermines global cooperation in the fight against the pandemic, seriously disrupts the world economic recovery, but also fails to help improve its domestic COVID-19 situation or save people’s lives. The U.S. will only harm itself as well as others! This game is not worth the candle.
The accusations and attacks by U.S. against China on COVID-19 origin-tracing are totally groundless. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China had upheld the principles of openness, transparency, science, and cooperation in tracing the origins of the virus. China had kept close communication with the World Health Organization (WHO) and many other countries and provided great support to the work on origin tracing. China had twice invited WHO experts to China for origin-tracing research. The experts visited places they wanted to visit and talked with everybody they wanted to talk with. On March 30, WHO released the joint study report of the joint WHO-China study of origins of SARS-CoV-2, which concluded that the pathway of lab leak is extremely unlikely, and that no massive outbreak was found in Wuhan prior to December 2019 and other important conclusions. The report is authoritative and scientific, and have been universally recognized by the international community. China’s open and transparent attitude on the issue of COVID-19 origin-tracing has also been affirmed by experts from various countries.
People can tell right and wrong. Politicizing COVID-19 origin-tracing undermines solidarity of international community and interferes the joint efforts to fight against the pandemic. The international community strongly opposes the attempt to politicize the study of the origins. Many organizations and individuals from Malaysia have spoken out to criticize the U.S. for politicizing the origin-tracing of COVID-19 in various ways. At present, the overall situation of the global COVID-19 pandemic remained complex and serious. Only when we unite can we effectively and truly curb the spread of the virus and restore a prosperous, harmonious, and peaceful life to people all around the world. As a responsible country, China is willing to work with the international community to jointly safeguard the scientific nature of the origin study, jointly resist the retrogressive trend of politicizing the issue of origin-tracing, and jointly maintain a sound atmosphere for global anti-pandemic cooperation.