Origin-tracing. Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence of the US on Friday released a so-called summary of the intelligence community assessment on COVID-19 origins. There are three main points: First, the intelligence community remains divided on the most likely origin of COVID-19; second, it denies that the virus was developed as a biological weapon; third, it continues to smear and slander China. Some US media have previously stated that this may "disappoint" US President Joe Biden.

Biden ordered the US intelligence community to conduct this investigation in May. The move was ill-intentioned from the very beginning, trying to produce a report to frame China. The US intelligence community has worked very hard, but they spent 90 days and still did not find any clue that met their expectations. There is no material that can be hyped anymore by the deadline, and it can only concoct a so-called investigation report to confuse the public, and continue its tricks of speculation and smearing. The US' plot to frame China has once again failed.

Some may ask that since the US had already preset a conclusion first, why did the US intelligence community fail to even falsify evidence this time? After all, it has done this before.

As is known to all, the US intelligence community once used a small bottle of "washing powder" as evidence that Iraq sought to obtain weapons of mass destruction. The US also funded "white helmets" to make fake videos and accused Syria of using chemical weapons against its civilians. These are typical acts of framing. But these tricks are indeed hard to implement against China. The COVID-19 origins tracing is a major global issue, and people are all watching. Besides, facing the US' vicious and slanderous farce, China itself has sufficient capabilities to identify the information, defend itself and make counterattacks.

The US intelligence community dares not make a lame "washing powder" scheme to slander China, but they have tried their best to do it in a more concealed way. The main tone of this so-called investigation report and the White House's statement is still to pass the buck to China, falsely claiming that their futile work is due to China's hindering of the global investigation. Biden also said in the statement that the US will continue to work with "like-minded partners" in origins tracing. These moves have revealed the US' arrogant and unreasonable true face - it still wants to make China look like the biggest "suspect" although it does not have conclusive evidence.

COVID-19 origins tracing should have been a purely scientific issue. Biden demanded intelligence agents to do scientists' work, his intentions and results can be imagined. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially released the WHO-China joint report on coronavirus origins as early as March, which is an authoritative, scientific and professional report. China twice invited WHO experts to carry out investigations in China and met all their visit requirements without any restrictions. China's open and transparent attitude on COVID-19 origins tracing has been fully recognized by international experts.

Throwing mud at China cannot whitewash the US. Can smearing China stop the Delta variant from raging on in the US? Can it save the more than 600,000 lost lives due to the US government's ineffective fight against the epidemic? No. Instead, it will make the problem worse. 

The US' pandemic situation went out of control long ago, and one of the fundamental reasons is the country's politicization of the virus which is anti-science and anti-human. When China was making an all-out effort to fight the virus in January 2020, then US secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross claimed that the coronavirus would help accelerate the return of jobs to the US. And when the pandemic just began to rage in the US, former US president Donald Trump called the coronavirus a new "hoax" of the Democrats. What is behind these weird acts? Obviously, some US politicians have too much dirty politics in their minds.

The US is the world's number one country in failing to fight and halt the spread of the epidemic, and the US intelligence community's report to frame China in turn proves China's innocence. This is a major failure of Washington's politicization of the COVID-19 origins tracing. 

To trace the origins of COVID-19, we must rely on science to find the truth. As stated by the Chinese embassy in the US on Friday, "Any Phase II origins study must be a comprehensive extension of Phase I and conducted in multiple places and countries to find out the truth." If the US is really serious about COVID-19 origins tracing, it should invite WHO experts to the US, carefully trace the early COVID-19 cases in the US and conduct a comprehensive origins study in some suspicious locations. In a word, the US should give the world an explanation.