Hua Chunying File Photo

China's foreign ministry has demanded that the US immediately offer evidence over reports that Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger recently claimed that COVID-19 was likely to be leaked from a Chinese lab, calling such a theory is shoddy lies, and that sought clarity on whether it was Pottinger's own point of view or the stance of the US government.

The so-called theories that the virus was leaked from a Wuhan laboratory have been debunked by almost all top scientists and disease control experts around the world, including those from the US.

Chinese scientists have gone on interviews and the US media have visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology to explain to the public the relevant management and research procedures at the Wuhan institute, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said during a routine press conference on Monday.

Chinese media has also released large amounts of data and facts to prove the false nature of such theories, she said.

Hua said she was astonished by the ridiculous reports.

As a senior US official, Pottinger still continues to hype such shoddy lies and rumors… If the US continues to hype the issue, please show evidence to back it up to the world," Hua said. 

The US media already exposed the connection between Fort Detrick and the major flu outbreak in the fall of 2019 and COVID-19, Hua said, asking why the US has not invited WHO experts to visit the lab if it is really interested in looking into the origins of the virus.

"The US has also established more than 200 overseas biological labs. What on earth are they trying to achieve? And why can't they invite international journalists to visit and look at those sites?"

Just as WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom said in his New Year's speech, 2021 should not allow "insular, partisan approaches, conspiracy theories and attacks on science to prevail," which resulted in "unnecessary suffering to people's health and society at large," Hua remarked.

We hope that certain individuals in the US can return to rationality and reason, face reality with honesty, enhance efforts to join forces with the international community, and do their best to protect the lives and health of the US people, and act in the way that a major power should, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson urged.

Global Times