China firmly opposes U.S. intelligence community's COVID-19 origins tracing report

China firmly opposes the report on COVID-19 origins by the U.S. intelligence community and has made strong representations with the United States, Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said on Saturday.

"It is a mendacious report made up for political purposes. There is no scientific basis or credibility in it," he said.

Ma reiterated China's stance that origins tracing of COVID-19 is a complex issue of science which should and can only be undertaken by scientists around the world through joint research.

The United States, however, disregards science and facts. It is instead obsessed with political manipulation and origins tracing by the intelligence community. Without providing any evidence, the United States has cooked up one story after another to defame and accuse China. The aim is to use origins tracing to shift blame onto China and spread the political virus, Ma said.

"The deployment of the intelligence community in origins tracing is in itself a compelling evidence of the politicization of the issue," he said.

The United States' attempts to politicize origins tracing have found no support and met widespread opposition from the international community, according to Ma.

More than 80 countries have written to the WHO Director-General, issued statements, or sent diplomatic notes to voice their objection to the politicization attempts and call for the Joint Report by the WHO-China joint study team to be upheld.

Over 300 political parties, social organizations and think tanks from more than 100 countries and regions have submitted a joint statement to the WHO Secretariat on opposing the politicization of origins tracing, Ma said, adding that over 25 million Chinese netizens have signed an open letter asking for an inquiry into the Fort Detrick base.

The United States has been refusing to respond to the international community's reasonable doubts on the Fort Detrick biolab and the over 200 overseas bases for biological experiments, trying to cover up the truth and avoid being held responsible, Ma said.

"The onus is on the United States to give the world an answer," he said.

Ma urged the United States to immediately stop doing anything that poisons the atmosphere for international cooperation on origins tracing or undermines global solidarity against the pandemic, and return to the right track of science-based origins tracing and cooperation in the face of the pandemic.