Blinken To Hold Talks With China’s Foreign Minister

BEIJING: The report made by the US intelligence community on the origins of COVID-19 is politicized, unscientific, and unreliable, and Washington is obsessed with political manipulations that can damage the global efforts in fighting the pandemic, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Sunday.

On Friday, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a report which elaborates on two possible origins of coronavirus, the natural and the laboratory-associated ones. The US intelligence community considers both options plausible, but does not believe that COVID-19 was developed as a biological weapon, the report said.

“In August, when the US special services published a brief version of a declassified report on the so-called research of COVID-19 origin, the Chinese side strongly opposed it.

The lies repeated thousand times still remain lies,” the diplomat said, as quoted by the foreign ministry.

The spokesman added that the fact that the special services were engaged in the research proves that the issue is politicized.

“It can do more harm to the global scientific community in the field of COVID-19 origin research, undermine the international cooperation in fighting with the pandemic, and lead to more human casualties,” the official said.

In spring 2021, the World Health Organization issued a full report on COVID-19 origin, stating that the leak from laboratory is an unlikely origin of the virus.