US raises pressure on Beijing over sample
Donald Trump’s top diplomat yesterday accused China of failing to share its sample of Covid-19 with other countries, claiming it was trying to ‘‘deny access to the world’’.
Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, also said that the Chinese government had waited a month before revealing that the virus was passing from human to human. And he urged leaders to grant access to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other Chinese laboratories, citing concerns over safety.
Taken together, the claims amounted to an accusation that China was undermining progress in understanding the virus by not co-operating with other countries. ‘‘Nations that desire to be part of the global landscape have obligations for truthful information, have obligations to share and be transparent and open,’’ Pompeo said.
The remarks, delivered in a briefing to the press in Washington DC, were one of a number of signs of growing tensions between the two countries over the pandemic. China’s US ambassador used an interview to push back on suggestions from US politicians that the virus emerged from a Chinese lab, dismissing ‘‘groundless accusations’’.
The US state of Missouri launched legal action against the Chinese government, accusing it of deceiving the public and causing an ‘‘unnecessary’’ global pandemic.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is under growing scrutiny over how it acted when the virus – which has now claimed more than 170,000 lives worldwide – first emerged in the city of Wuhan in Hubei province.
Earlier this month, Trump suspended US funding for the World Health Organisation (WHO), citing concerns that it took China’s early assurances over coronavirus at face value.
Yesterday, Pompeo used his prepared remarks to accuse China of both failing to notify the WHO of the outbreak in a ‘‘timely manner’’ and then holding back information.
‘‘It covered up how dangerous the disease is,’’ Pompeo said of the Chinese government.
‘‘It didn’t report sustained human-to-human transmission for a month. It censored those who tried to warn the world in order to halt the testing of new samples and it destroyed existing samples.
‘‘The CCP still has not shared the virus sample from inside of China with the outside world, making it impossible to track the disease’s evolution.’’
Taking questions, Pompeo then accused China of seeking to ‘‘transfer responsibility’’ – a reference to one Chinese official’s claim that the US Army brought the virus into the country – and ‘‘deny access to the world’’.
He suggested that Chinese laboratories handling samples of the virus should be opened up to international inspections.
The remarks came the day after Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the US, appeared to push back on suggestions that coronavirus may have come from a Chinese lab.
The idea has been pushed by some Republican senators and Trump has said his administration is looking into it, despite many scientists believing the virus came from a market selling wildlife in Wuhan and jumped from animals to people.
‘‘So little attention is paid to the views of the scientists as some politicians are so preoccupied in their efforts for stigmatisation; for groundless accusations,’’ Cui said.
Chinese officials have said they have acted responsibly in handling the virus and keeping the WHO informed.