CHINA SAYS POMPEO ‘INSANE’ OVER VIRUS LAB ORIGIN THEORY

China says US politicians rushing to shift the blame

CHINA’S state broadcaster CCTV yesterday attacked United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s “insane and evasive remarks” over the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, further fuelling Sino-US tensions.

Pompeo on Sunday said “enormous evidence” showed the virus originated in a lab in China, doubling down on previous claims that have been repeatedly denied by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and scientific experts.

The theory had been heavilypushed by Donald Trump’s administration, which had been increasingly critical of China’s handling of the outbreak that first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.

Since then, the virus had killed more than 247,000 people and 3.5 million had been infected worldwide.

Titled “Evil Pompeo is wantonly spewing poison and spreading lies”, the harshly-worded commentary cited WHO executive director Mike Ryan and Columbia University virologist W. Ian Lipkin, who claimed that the virus was natural in origin and was not man-made or leaked from a laboratory.

“These flawed and unreasonable remarks by American politicians make it clear to more and more people that no ‘evidence’ exists,” the commentary said.

“The so-called ‘virus leaked from a Wuhan lab’ hype is a complete and utter lie. American politicians are rushing to shift the blame and suppress China when their own domestic anti-epidemic efforts are a mess.”

Two further commentaries published yesterday by state newspaper People’s Daily attacked Pompeo and former White House strategist Steve Bannon as a “pair of lying clowns”, and blasted Bannon as a “Cold War living fossil”.

Bannon last week said on a US far-right talk show that China had committed a “biological Chernobyl” against the US and advocated the theory that the virus originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, echoing recent White House rhetoric.

In the past week, CCTV has repeatedly slammed Pompeo as the “common enemy of mankind” and accused him of “spreading a political virus” over his repeated claims that the pandemic originated in a lab.

China and the US have repeatedly traded barbs over the virus’ origins in an escalating war of words, after Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian in March pushed the conspiracy theory that the US military might have brought the virus to China.

Since then, the two superpowers had accused each other of spreading misinformation, as Trump has also attacked China over its alleged lack of transparency.