Chinese ambassador urges science-based origins-tracing, united front against pandemic

The origins-tracing of a virus during a pandemic should uphold the principle of science rather than politicizing the effort, the Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia wrote in an article published recently.

The article, which was titled "Upholding Science in Virus-Tracing," was published on Thursday in leading Malaysian newspapers including the Star, New Strait Times and Sinchew Daily.

"The purpose of virus origins-tracing is to enhance the scientific understanding about viruses, allowing countries to deal with major infectious diseases in the future," Chinese Ambassador Ouyang Yujing wrote in the article.

From mankind's experience, the origins-tracing of AIDS, Ebola, MERS, SARS and the 2009 Swine Flu involved complicated scientific problems across multiple disciplines and fields. The origins-tracing of COVID-19 is no different, and the answer can only be found by scientists through research, he wrote.

An increasing amount of evidence shows that the novel coronavirus has long been lurking in human communities. Research conducted by medical institutions and medical experts showed that COVID-19 was detected in Europe as early as November 2019, and they believed that based on the overall situation, it is an obvious fact that COVID-19 has multiple origins and broke out in multiple places, the article read.

On July 5, 24 internationally-renowned scientists, including a well-known Malaysian virologist, published an open letter in The Lancet noting that COVID-19 generated and evolved in nature, it said.

On July 7, scientists from the United States, Britain and Australia published a preprint paper on Zenodo, a European research data-sharing platform, pointing out that no evidence showed COVID-19 originated from the Wuhan labs, it further said.

Nonetheless, several countries disregard these existing pieces of scientific evidence. Instead, they politicize the matter, instruct intelligence agencies to carry out origins-tracing investigations, smear and slander other countries, and even threaten and press the World Health Organization (WHO) secretariat and international experts by all kinds of means, the article said.

China actively engaged in origins-tracing cooperation with the WHO from the early outbreak of COVID-19, and shared the genome sequencing of the virus at the earliest time possible, the ambassador wrote in the article.

China also invited WHO experts to China twice for origins-tracing research, and provided the expert team full support. They visited every site on their list and met every individual they asked for, it said.

After that, the WHO released the China-WHO joint study report on COVID-19 origins-tracing which clearly concluded that a lab leak of COVID-19 is "extremely unlikely."

Over 80 countries, whether through letters to the WHO director-general, statements or diplomatic notes, expressed their support for the China-WHO joint study report and opposed the politicizing of COVID-19 origin-tracing, the article further said.

More than 300 political parties, organizations and think tanks from over 100 countries and regions submitted a joint statement to the WHO secretariat, urging the WHO to conduct COVID-19 origins-tracing research in an objective and fair manner, it added.

"The virus has no borders, nor does it recognize ethnicity. China, like other countries, is a victim of the pandemic," the ambassador noted.

"As the virus continues to mutate and wreak havoc, combating the pandemic remains our utmost priority," he said.