Coronavirus Photo: VCG

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has slammed a report released by US Representative Mike McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which claimed that there is a preponderance of evidence that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sometime before September 2019. The relevant report is totally based on concocted lies and distorted facts without providing any evidence, and is not credible or scientific, the ministry said.

The report also alleged that the WIV, aided by US experts and Chinese and US government funds, was conducting gain-of-function research, Reuters reported.

The US congressmen's actions smear and slander China in pursuit of political gains, and we express categorical opposition to and strong condemnation of such despicable acts that have no moral bottom line, the Chinese Foreign Ministry told media on Tuesday.

This February, a China-WHO joint expert team visited the WIV and held in-depth and candid exchanges with experts there. Members of the joint expert team spoke highly of the institute's openness and transparency, and reached a major conclusion in the joint study report that a lab leak is extremely unlikely, the ministry noted.

In 2003, the US side used a test tube of laundry powder as evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. One need not look far for a lesson, and the international community should not let such a thing happen again, it said.

The ministry pointed out that the US side's political manipulation of origins tracing has drawn overwhelming rejection from the international community. To date, 70 countries have voiced opposition to politicizing origins tracing and emphasized the importance of upholding the joint China-WHO study report by sending letters to the WHO Director-General and issuing statements. It shows that clear-eyed people around the world can tell right and wrong, and the US should listen to these objective and impartial voices.

If these US congressmen do have the slightest sense of responsibility for their own people, they should urge the US government to release at the earliest date the medical records of those infected in the unexplained outbreaks of respiratory disease in Virginia and the large-scale EVALI outbreak in Wisconsin and Maryland in 2019, and of US military personnel who fell ill during the Military World Games in Wuhan, and to allow a thorough international probe into the Fort Detrick lab and the 200-plus US biological labs overseas, the ministry said.

"As for gain of function research on coronaviruses, the US has provided more funding and conducted more experiments in this area than anyone else. Why don't the congressmen find out if there is such research at home and whether or not it may have created the novel coronavirus?" the ministry asked.

In a word, we urge the US to respect facts and science and focus on fighting COVID-19 and saving lives, instead of engaging in political manipulation under the pretext of the epidemic and shifting the blame to others, they noted.