Chinese FM's press briefings dedicated to refuting Pompeo's rumors
Global Times
Source:Global Times Published: 2020/5/8 19:28:40
The Chinese Foreign Ministry's recent regular press conferences have largely turned into a forum to refute rumors spread by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo has tirelessly repeated his lies even if almost all of the world's top scientists and medical experts, including US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, have publicly denied his claim that the virus had leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
"We have asked him several times: where is the evidence? Take it out if you have it," Hua Chunying, a spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry, said at Friday's media briefing.
Pompeo recently said that the US had evidence that the novel coronavirus originated from the Wuhan lab, and that China should allow people from Western countries to visit it. He also claimed China has a history of running substandard laboratories, and that this is not the first time the world is exposed to viruses from "failures in a Chinese lab."
In response, Hua said the Wuhan P4 lab is a joint project of China and France, and its design, construction and management all followed international standards. Its first group of researchers was trained at P4 labs in France and the US, and its facilities and equipment are tested annually by a third party accredited by the country.
Last year, it received over 70 visits from foreign scholars. Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance and a prominent virus expert who has been cooperating with the lab for 15 years, said in an April 26 interview that the Wuhan lab does not have the virus that could trigger the outbreak.
We have stated the facts many times, but Pompeo still repeatedly smears and attacks China on the issue. We are forced to expose the US according to public information and media reports, Hua said.
According to public information, there are only two P4 laboratories in China that represent the highest level of bio-safety in the world. There were 13 such labs in the US as of February.
The US has 1,495 P3 labs, and this number does not include the many biological laboratories set up by the US in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, Hua said.
USA Today reported that the US labs had hundreds of accidents since 2003, which could lead to people infected with a deadly virus and community infections, and cause epidemics.
Reports said the US has 16 biological laboratories in Ukraine, some of which have experienced outbreaks of dangerous infectious diseases such as measles.
The Fort Detrick laboratory that handles high-level disease-causing material, such as Ebola, in Fredrick, Maryland was shut after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a cease and desist order to the organization in July 2019.
Soon after the base was closed, the area around it was hit by a mysterious outbreak of e-cigarette disease, followed by a flu which infected at least 32 million people and caused 18,000 deaths, Hua said.
Since March, there have been mounting calls in the US to disclose the true reason for closing the base, and find out the connection between the base closure and the outbreak of e-cigarette disease and COVID-19, she said.
"Since the US has been claiming transparency and openness, I wonder if the US can live up to its beliefs and open Fort Detrick Army Base and other biological labs in the US and around the world, including in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, for independent investigations by the international community and accept the World Health Organization or other international institutions' investigation on the origin of the coronavirus." Hua said.
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