China slams US accusations it obstructed international investigation into COVID-19 origins

China is firmly opposed to the report released by the US intelligence community on COVID-19 origins tracing that accused China of "obstructing international investigations" and "refusing to share information and blaming other countries", the Chinese Embassy in the United States said in a statement on Saturday.

US President Joe Biden had given the intelligence community 90 days to investigate the origins of COVID-19. The report was released to the public on Friday through an inconclusive, unclassified summary.

A fabrication with no credibility

The report is a fabrication led by the US intelligence community and has no scientific basis or credibility at all, the statement said, adding that tracing the COVID-19 virus is a complex scientific matter that should only be done by scientists, not intelligence experts.

The statement recalled US intelligence's "masterpieces" in history including displaying a test tube of laundry powder cited as evidence for Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction and the staged "White Helmets" video cited as evidence for a chemical weapon attack in Syria.

The embassy pointed out that the US is now using its old trick again while ignoring the Report by the WHO-China joint mission and choosing to have its intelligence community put together a report instead. "How can this possibly be science-based and reliable origin-tracing?"

An excuse for smearing China

The assertion of a lack of transparency on the part of China is only an excuse for a US politicizing and stigmatizing campaign, the statement read.

It reiterated that China has taken an open, transparent and responsible attitude since the outbreak of COVID-19, adding that it has released information, shared the genome sequencing of the virus, and carried out international cooperation to fight the disease, all done at the earliest possible time.

In terms of COVID-19 origins tracing, the Chinese embassy stressed, China has followed a science-based, professional, serious and responsible approach and the openness and transparency China has displayed has won full recognition from international experts.

"We are the first to cooperate with the WHO on global origin-tracing, and we have invited WHO experts to conduct the investigations twice in China. We were completely open, transparent and cooperative when the experts were in China. They visited every site on their list, met every individual they asked for, and were provided with all the data they wanted."

The statement also noted the formulation of the Report of the WHO-China joint mission followed WHO procedures and adopted a scientific approach that is authoritative and science-based.