Chinese health authority opposes scapegoating in name of origins tracing

BEIJING, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Coronavirus origins tracing should never be used as a handy tool for scapegoating, nor should it be manipulated for political purposes, a senior Chinese health official has said, refuting a recent report produced by the United States on the origins of the COVID-19 virus.

In a Sunday interview, Zeng Yixin, deputy head of the National Health Commission, noted that the U.S. attempt to politicize origins tracing is laid bare by the fact that the report was produced by its intelligence community, instead of any professional medical institution.

China has been actively engaged in origins-tracing cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) from the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, said Zeng.

Earlier this year, China invited WHO experts to China for origins tracing research, and provided the expert team with full support, Zeng said, adding that the experts visited every site on their list, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and met every individual they asked for.

The report resulting from that research pointed out that the introduction of the virus through a laboratory incident was "extremely unlikely." The report and its conclusions have been approved by the global scientific community, noted Zeng.

As a complicated matter of science, coronavirus origins tracing ought to be conducted by scientists worldwide, and by them alone, Zeng emphasized, urging the U.S. side to regard it solely as a scientific problem, and help facilitate worldwide origins-tracing research, including that taking place on U.S. soil.