Commentary: U.S. attempt to manipulate WHO is ugly

BEIJING, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Some U.S. politicians have recently stepped up their efforts to smear China by playing up the so-called lab-leak theory in tracing the origin of COVID-19.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday again urged for a second-phase COVID-19 origin-tracing that targets China during a meeting with World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Kuwait.

Seeking a "presumption of guilt" against China, the U.S. attempt to manipulate the WHO to politicize the origin-tracing issue is greatly ugly.

In fact, the origin-tracing study report of the China-WHO joint mission released by the health agency in March has drawn the clear conclusion that a laboratory leak is extremely unlikely.

Widely recognized as highly professional -- which it is -- the conclusion drawn on the basis of scientific research has been viciously discredited by the U.S. side.

Regrettably, disregarding the previous efforts and findings, the WHO now sings a different tune on the issue, and proposes a work plan on a second-phase origins study with a research focus that is consistent with the United States' malicious calculation against China.

The WHO's setback has stunned and disappointed scientists and the international community since it deviates from the requirements of the resolution of the 73rd World Health Assembly, and also ignores the conclusions and recommendations of the first-stage joint research report.

The organization's changing tune "is typical of the WHO's inability to function coherently, and a symptom of it being infected and derailed by the broader geopolitical struggle being forced upon it by Washington," said an article recently published on the website of Russian media outlet Russia Today.

Obviously, a motive of the U.S. politicians is to deflect their responsibility for the failed fight against the virus by slandering China.

However, no matter how sophisticated and deceptive their manipulations and tricks are, the U.S. politicians' incompetence in handling the pandemic cannot be concealed.

Now the world's most developed country is facing rebounding numbers of new confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths. But the bloody figures have not changed the minds of those unscrupulous U.S. politicians, who are still wantonly spreading political "viruses" everywhere and disrupting global anti-pandemic cooperation.

The U.S. politicians, as described by media, have turned the deadly virus into a pretext for international blackmail. But such a shoddy ploy is bound to fail. As an independent and sovereign country, China will not and cannot accept any work plan that is not a real plan to find the origins of the virus, but a plan to discredit China.

Meanwhile, the international community is also widely opposed to the politicization of the origin-tracing work. Up till now, nearly 60 countries have sent letters to the WHO, agreeing with the results of the first-phase origin-tracing research and opposing any attempt to politicize the study of the virus origins. Many political leaders, experts and media have repeatedly emphasized that combating the pandemic and tracing the virus origins must be based on science.

Origin-tracing needs cooperation rather than discrediting, truth rather than lies, and respecting science rather than political manipulation.

The U.S. politicians must be aware that whatever platform they will use to play their political tricks, it is impossible to contain China's development, and such despicable moves will only reveal their true hypocrisy.