Photo: IC

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security warned that Chinese hackers were attempting to steal novel coronavirus data on treatments and vaccines from the US, the Voice of America (VOA) reported on Wednesday. "The two organizations gave no examples to support the allegation," the VOA added.

If the US government agencies had any real evidence, they would have published it publicly and made a huge hype. It is self-evident that the US has no evidence at all for this claim.

It is no secret that the US often resorts to absurd "evidence" to attack China. For example, when US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, Washington could use nothing but rumors found on Chinese social media platforms as proof.

Did, and could, the US provide any hard evidence after having accused China of "stealing" US vaccines? No. 

This means that the US cannot even find rumors to support its accusations. It seems that some US politicians have totally lost their minds.

The COVID-19 pandemic is still raging across the world, especially in the US. If any country dares to hack other countries' labs and steal research results into vaccines, it would be an act against all humanity. Making up such rumors is convenient for the US government, so that US politicians can dodge their own culpability and failures, and instead allegedly hold China accountable for COVID-19 spread in the US.

The US' ploy is obvious. First, it has accused China of concealing information. Now it accuses China of stealing information. It is a normal, unscrupulous US practice.

The Trump administration has been constantly defaming China. Washington doesn't seem to be seeking geopolitical interests anymore. After all, geopolitics is related to national interests. Some US politicians, however, do not care about their country's national interests. All they care about is their personal interests. 

They do not want to make respectable history, but they want to shirk their personal responsibility in the crisis, even at the expense of deteriorating China-US ties. 

They cannot escape their responsibilities. Their negligence has cost more than 84,000 American lives as of Thursday, and that number rises everyday with fresh, innocent lives consumed and families shattered. 

Some Americans argue that the Trump administration is confronted with difficulties in carrying out decisive measures to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. They say that those politicians faced opposition from governors and certain American citizens during the COVID-19 fight. This is complete nonsense. 

Did the Trump administration seriously explain to governors and the Americans the gravity of the fatality that awaited? No.

If the US president had made a serious television speech to the whole country in January, and made everything clear to the American people, such as the data he received and the facts he knew, would Americans not have taken the novel coronavirus seriously? The US' current situation partly resulted from the country's anti-intellectualism. And now the US is using rumors to attack China.

Facts are more eloquent than words. No American public health authority has come out to endorse the US government. The US' despicable war of words is a publicity stunt by certain crank politicians.

China's progress in COVID-19 vaccine research appears to be much ahead of that in the US. When China's vaccines are successfully developed, people will see how changeable the US can be. 

If China has something that can save lives, does the US want it or not? If the US wants it, then it will have to show its goodwill. But China needs to do its own things well first.

As a matter of fact, there is a possibility that the US will hack China's labs and steal China's research into COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. China needs to take precautions. Now, China is dealing with a group of American politicians who have no moral consciousness at all. China should consider all possible scenarios, and should not entertain unrealistic fantasies about them.

The article was compiled by Global Times reporter Li Qingqing based on an interview with Shen Yi, director at the Research Center for Cyberspace Governance of Fudan University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn