(Photo : Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
China Holds Annual Two Sessions Meetings Amidst Global Coronavirus Pandemic
BEIJING, CHINA - MAY 28: Chinese president Xi Jinping listens during the closing session of the National People's Congress, which included a vote on a new draft security bill for Hong Kong, at the Great Hall of the People on May 28, 2020 in Beijing, China. The Chinese government passed the draft by a vote of 2,878 votes to one during the session. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
On Tuesday, China slammed the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, calling the lawmaker's recently disclosed report claiming COVID-19 originated in a Chinese lab "despicable" and politically motivated.
The report by Texas Rep. Michael T. McCaul is "entirely based on fabricated lies and distorted facts without giving any proof, and is neither credible nor scientific," according to a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. In a report released Monday, McCaul claimed that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 spilled from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology in August or early September 2019. Chinese officials were complicit in the world's largest coverup.
China claims COVID-19 originated in the US
According to the publication's authors, data presented in an update of McCaul's research on the COVID-19 origins in September shows that SARS-CoV-2, which had been genetically altered, was unintentionally discharged from the laboratory. In response, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated the PRC's earlier allegations that the virus originated in the United States, The Washington Times reported.
McCaul also asked for senior researchers associated with the Wuhan lab to be sanctioned, singling out Peter Daszak, whose New York-based company EcoHealth Alliance provided $3.4 million in National Institutes of Health funding to the Wuhan lab between 2014 and 2019.
Per Fox News, this comes only weeks before President Joe Biden's deadline for the intelligence community to complete its investigation into the pandemic's origins. Prior to that, Republicans will lay out their most detailed case to date, claiming that Wuhan Institute of Virology researchers may have genetically manipulated the virus. The preponderance of evidence suggests SARS-CoV-2 was accidentally released from a Wuhan lab.
US military conspiracy theory
Meanwhile, the Chinese statement tried to delegitimize the US intelligence establishment by referencing events leading to the 2003 Iraq War. Republicans claimed the Communist Party's finger-pointing at the US military made sense if it was seeking to hide the outbreak's source.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans concluded that the World Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019 were one of the pandemic's earliest super spreader events, with COVID-19 emerging from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in late August or early September 2019; and China is covering it up for months, according to the report.
The report focused on the event, which drew over 9,000 military personnel from over 100 nations to Wuhan, where Republicans said the Chinese government was aware of the virus' spread. On Tuesday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement titled Remarks on COVID-19 Origins Tracing Disseminated by US Congressmen.
The report allegedly distorts and slanders China for political advantage, and the Chinese government "expresses absolute opposition to and strong condemnation of such vile conduct." The statement was also issued by China's embassy in the United States.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry cited US military troops who reportedly became ill at the Wuhan Military World Games and demanded an international investigation of the US Army's Fort Detrick in Maryland, something China has done dozens of times previously. Since at least March 2020, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian and other Chinese officials and publications have promoted false accusations against the US military.
Zhao and others have been pushing the US Army accusations for months, and they were resurrected earlier this year when the WHO-China COVID-19 report was made public. The US has previously denied the Chinese allegations as erroneous, baseless, unscientific, and a myth. The GOP report believes the infection spread across Wuhan, "possibly via the Wuhan Metro," The Washington Examiner reported.
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