Johnson demands China comes clean
BORIS Johnson believes China has questions to answer about the origins of coronavirus, his spokesman said yesterday.
The Downing Street official made the Prime Minister’s views known following a growing international outcry about whether China’s government had disclosed the full facts about the early spread of the disease.
A leaked report from within the regime yesterday suggested Beijing’s rulers are concerned the row could lead to a major confrontation.
Tensions between China and the US have increased after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said there is “a significant amount of evidence that this came from that laboratory in Wuhan”, the Chinese city at the centre of the initial outbreak.
Asked about the claims yesterday, Mr Johnson’s spokesman said: “I’m not going to comment on intelligence matters.”
But he added: “Clearly there are questions that need to be answered about the origin and spread of the virus, not least so we can ensure we are better prepared for future pandemics.”
Earlier yesterday, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace called for China to be “transparent and open” about the origin of coronavirus. Asked in an LBC Radio interview if China had questions to answer over how quickly it made the world aware of the extent of the crisis, Mr Wallace added: “I think it does. The time for a post mortem is after we’ve all got it under control, have come through it and our economies are back to normal.
“China needs to be open and transparent about what it learnt – it’s shortcomings but also its successes.”
Tory MP Neil O’Brien, secretary of the backbench China Reform Group, said: “China should start giving access to the World Health Organisation to investigate, and stop bullying countries that ask perfectly reasonable questions about its handling of the crisis.
“Beijing has arrested journalists and is still doing so. It accused the doctor who tried to raise the alarm of making false comments and he later died.
“It has massive questions to answer – its secretive and repressive system has contributed to disaster for the world.”
Amid the international outcry, the leaked Chinese Communist Party report yesterday suggested the regime’s leaders are becoming sensitive to world opinion.
The report, presented early last month by the Ministry of State Security to top Beijing
including President Xi Jinping, concluded that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Relations between China and the US are at their worst in decades, with deepening mistrust from US allegations of unfair trade and technology practices to disputes over Hong Kong, Taiwan and contested territories in the South China Sea.
In recent days President Donald Trump, facing a difficult re-election as the virus claims tens of thousands of American lives and ravages the economy, has been ramping up his criticism of Beijing and threatening new tariffs on China. Chinese officials had a “special responsibility” to inform the world of the threat by the coronavirus “since they were the first to learn of it,” US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said.
She added: “Beijing’s efforts to silence scientists, journalists, and citizens and spread disinformation exacerbated the dangers of this health crisis.”
Three decades ago, in the aftermath of Tiananmen, the US and many Western governments imposed sanctions against China, including restricting arms sales and technology transfers.
China is far more powerful nowadays. Xi has revamped milileaders tary strategy to create a fighting force equipped to win modern wars. He is expanding China’s air and naval reach in a challenge to more than 70 years of US military dominance in Asia.
China’s foreign ministry called for co-operation, insisting “the sound and steady development of China-US relations” serve the interests of both countries and the international community.
It added: “Words or actions that engage in political manipulation or stigmatization under the pretext of the pandemic, including taking the opportunity to sow discord between countries, are not conducive to international co-operation against the pandemic.” China has been accused by the United States of suppressing early information on the virus, which was first detected in the central city of Wuhan, and also of downplaying its risks.
Beijing has repeatedly denied that it covered up the extent or severity of the virus outbreak.
China has managed to contain domestic spread of the virus and has been trying to assert a leading role in the global battle against Covid-19.
That has included a propaganda push around its donations and sale of medical supplies to the US and other countries and sharing of expertise.