China rejects US law to declassify intelligence on COVID-19 origins

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – China on Tuesday rejected the US law to declassify intelligence on COVID-19 origins.

“China strongly opposes the law, which severely distorts facts, fabricates false info, hypes up lab-leak theory without evidence,” Wang Wenbin, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters in Beijing.

“US political manipulation poses the real obstacle to global origins-tracing. The US needs to share the data of suspected early cases in the US with World Health Organization, disclose information about its bio-labs at Fort Detrick, the University of North Carolina and around the globe,” Wang was quoted as saying by a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement.

US President Joe Biden signed a bill Monday that requires the declassification of information related to the origins of COVID-19 after it was unanimously approved by Congress.

“My Administration will continue to review all classified information relating to COVID-19’s origins, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Biden wrote in a statement.

“In implementing this legislation, my Administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible, consistent with my constitutional authority to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security,” he added.

The bill requires the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to declassify all intelligence related to the COVID-19’s origins and came after several current and former officials and US agencies came out in favor of the theory that the virus originated in a Chinese research lab in the city of Wuhan rather than as a result of natural phenomena.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Feb. 28 that the bureau “assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan, accusing Beijing of working to undermine the investigation from the US and other members of the international community.”

- China urges US to view Beijing’s efforts on Ukraine ‘objectively’

Wang called on Washington to abandon what Beijing says is Cold War mentality over China’s efforts on Ukraine issue.

“The US needs to view Chinese and international efforts to promote peace talks objectively rather than from the outdated Cold War perspective, still less cause the conflict to protract and escalate,” the spokesman said.

“The US says it wants to defend peace, but the world has yet to see any US effort meant for peace, particularly as it continues to pour weapons into the battlefield. The US says it wants to stop wars, but it’s been involved in virtually all the conflicts and wars in Europe and indeed around the world with only few exceptions,” Wang said.

He also said China was neither the one that created the Ukraine crisis nor a party to the crisis, “still less has China provided weaponry to any party to the conflict.”

“The US is in no position to point fingers at China, still less deflect blames on us,” he said, questioning whether the US was “willing to promote peace talks.”