Washington is concerned that China does not have “a set of skills, capabilities, methods and standards that would be sufficient to defend peace”, – the US Secretary of State said.
The United States authorities have doubts about the safety of laboratories located in China, whose specialists study viruses and pathogens. US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said this in an interview with WMAL-FM radio station. The transcript of the interview was distributed on Thursday by the press service of the State Department.
“When countries have large institutions where they research viruses and pathogens, we always try to make sure <…> that this is done in a safe and reliable way. There are many such laboratories in China, and we were concerned that they don’t have a set of skills, capabilities, methods and standards that would be enough to protect the world from potential [virus] leakage”, – Pompeo said.
“And we have high hopes for similar institutions that exist in the United States. We hold ourselves to very high standards. We expect the World Health Organization and other global health institutions to ensure that other countries have the same standards because, as you can see, a virus leak into the wild can have global consequences that extend far beyond any one country”, – the secretary of state added.
Earlier, Pompeo said he expects the Chinese authorities to allow foreign specialists to the laboratory in Wuhan, from which, according to some U.S. media, allegedly a new coronavirus could start spreading. At the same time, on Wednesday on Fox News, the secretary of state admitted that the U.S. does not have evidence of the artificial origin of the new coronavirus.
In turn, an official representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Zhao Lijian said that the version about the artificial creation of coronavirus is not supported by any evidence. Thus, he commented on the publication of the Fox News channel that the so-called zero patient with coronavirus was allegedly a certain laboratory employee in Wuhan.