Liang Caide
Consul General of the People's Republic of China in Kota Kinabalu
At present, the frequent mutation of the COVID-19 variants has caused a fluctuating global pandemic, the prevention and control situation is still very tough worldwide. While the world is tenaciously fighting against the disease, a few countries led by the United States do not focus on domestic epidemic prevention, but instead engage in political manipulation on the issue of the origin of COVID-19. It is gradually evolving into a political farce as the investigation tends to discarding and opposing the scientific approach. The origin-tracing of virus is a serious and complex scientific research. Its purpose is to prevent and better respond to similar public health crises that may arise in the future. It should be done without any politicization, stigma, and ideological interference. Here today, I would like to share a few points with you.
It is necessary to adhere to a scientific attitude in tracing the source of the virus. The purpose of tracing is to find out the source of the virus and understand the mechanism of transmission. The Chinese government has always advocated in conducting the study of origins on the basis of facts and respect for science, and has twice invited experts from the World Health Organization to work in China. At the beginning of this year, international authoritative experts from 10 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia formed a joint expert group with China’s authoritative experts to conduct a 28-day joint research in China. During which they went to all the places they wanted to go, met all the people they wanted to see, and made the scientific conclusion that “the Wuhan laboratory leak is extremely unlikely”. They also put forward important suggestions such as “searching for possible early cases worldwide” and “studying the possibility of cold chain transmission of the virus”. The above-mentioned work process follows the standard procedures of the WHO, which is authoritative, professional and scientific-based. It is universally recognized and respected by the international community. It also lays a good foundation based on which subsequent global origin-tracing efforts should be carried out.
The study of origins of virus must not be politicized. The US openly called COVID-19 the “Wuhan Virus” last year and withdrew from WHO. From the very beginning, the US has tried to politicize the pandemic and stigmatize the virus. It even turns a blind eye to the hard work of scientists by resorting to the intelligence community to conduct origin-tracing and hype up the so-called lab-leak theory with the presumption of guilt. Its motive is to attempt to evade the responsibility of its failure to fight against the virus to China with this, and achieve the political goal of discrediting and suppressing China's development. Due to the strong political pressure imposed by the United States, the WHO Secretariat took the assumption that “China violated laboratory procedures and caused virus leakage” as the focus of the Phase II origin study, which was generally considered extremely unlikely by scientists. It has completely deviated from objective neutrality, discarded the scientific conclusions and professional recommendations of the joint research study between China and WHO. From which it can be clearly seen the traces of American “political manipulation”. China absolutely cannot accept this. Recently, more than 70 countries have supported the China-WHO origin-tracing joint study report and opposed the politicization of the issue by writing letters to the Director-General of WHO, issuing statements or notes.
The origin-tracing of the virus must work on global cooperation. The investigation of the virus origin should be based on a global perspective, and it should be carried out by scientists in a larger area and scope, and many mysteries should be solved through equal exchanges and candid cooperation between countries. China is the first country to inform the world about the epidemic, but there is no scientific evidence that COVID-19 originated in China. In fact, judging from the overall situation of the pandemic, more and more research and clues point to the United States, especially the notorious US military biological experiment center in Fort Detrick. The National Institutes of Health in the United States analyzed the blood samples of 24,000 American citizens and found that the virus appeared in the U.S in December 2019. Fort Detrick laboratory was shut down after a “security incident” in July 2019. Then a large-scale outbreak of “white pneumonia” occurred in the nearby area. CT scan showed part of the patient's lung was lumpy and fuzzy white, which was very similar to the symptoms of COVID-19. The laboratory of the University of North Carolina near Fort Detrick has long been conducted coronavirus related research. The SARS-type coronavirus was successfully synthesized as early as 2003. The laboratory has a close cooperation relationship with Fort Detrick in this regard, and has had multiple safety incidents every year since 2012. In October 2019, the United States sent more than 300 military athletes to Wuhan to participate in the World Military Games. Five of them had symptoms similar to COVID-19 and were hurriedly picked up by a special plane sent by the US military. A few days ago, 25 million people in China signed a petition requesting the international community to investigate the Fort Detrick Laboratory in the United States. In response to the concerns of the international community on these issues, the United States has always been silent and concealed. What truth are they covering up?
The COVID-19 pandemic is the common enemy of mankind, but what is more terrifying than the novel coronavirus is the political virus that undermines the overall situation of the global fight against the pandemic. We should uphold the concept of science, openness and transparency, not sparing any chance to political virus, unite and cooperate to promote the early success of origin-tracing work.