TRUMP TIES COVID-19 TO CHINA LAB
‘NOT MAN-MADE’ US intelligence community denies president’s claim that coronavirus originated in Chinese lab
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump claimed he has seen evidence the new coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab, as he threatened tariffs on Beijing over its role in the pandemic. His assertion was, however, immediately undermined by his intelligence chief.
WASHINGTON:US President Donald Trump has claimed to have seen evidence to substantiate the unproven theory that the coronavirus originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, despite the conclusion by American intelligence agencies that the pathogen was “not man-made or genetically modified”.
Asked on Thursday if he had seen anything to make him think the lab was the source of the outbreak, Trump said: “Yes, I have.”
He did not share any evidence and when asked how he felt confident it was the Wuhan lab, he demurred, saying, “I am not allowed to tell you that.”
Earlier Thursday, office of the Director of National Intelligence, which heads the US intelligence community, said in a statement that it concurs with the wider scientific community that the coronavirus was “not man-made or genetically modified”. However, the agency said it was still examining “whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan”.
Secretary of state Mike Pompeo also indicated he had not seen definitive evidence on the China lab link. “We don’t know if it came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. We don’t know if it emanated from the wet market or yet some other place. We don’t know those answers.”
In Geneva, a spokesman for the World Health Organization said several investigations into the source of the virus were going on, adding that the agency was “not currently involved in the studies in China”.
Before Trump made his latest comments, the Chinese government said on Thursday that any claims that the coronavirus was released from a laboratory are “unfounded and purely fabricated out of nothing.” Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang cited the institute’s director, Yuan Zhiming, as saying that the lab strictly implements biosecurity procedures that would prevent the release of any pathogen.
Questions are being raised about China’s handling of the epidemic and calls for an impartial investigation into it have been growing worldwide, most recently and vehemently from Australia. Trump has turned up the rhetoric on China in recent days as his own administration’s handling of the crisis has come under increasing criticism. He recently indicated he was not averse to making China pay for losses incurred by the US.
When asked on Thursday about reports that he could cancel US debt obligations to China, Trump said he could “do it differently” and act in “probably a little bit more of a forthright manner”.
“I could do the same thing but even for more money, just putting on tariffs,” he said.
The new tariffs, if he does impose them, will be in addition to the 25% duty still in force on $370 billion’s worth of imports from China left over from the trade war between the two countries that ended in January with the signing of a limited Phase One deal.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that punitive measures under discussion include partly cancelling public debt owed to China, which is the second largest holder of US public debt with around $1 trillion, and stripping China of sovereign immunity and allowing American victims of the epidemic to sue China for damages. US officials are set to map the course of action but the president is reported to be tilting towards punishing China, away from a more moderate response being advocated by his economic advisers.