As US President Joe Biden nears his deadline for intelligence agencies to hand over reports on the origin of a new coronavirus, a source close to the matter told the Global Times on Tuesday that the US desire to investigate the origin of the virus was aimed at absorbing Chinese diplomatic resources
“The US is trying to find ‘loopholes’ in China’s anti-epidemic policies and plans to continue to pressure the WHO and collude with its allies to pressure China in an attempt to discredit the Chinese government for ‘hiding the truth about the origin of the virus’.”
In May, Biden ordered intelligence officials to “redouble” efforts to investigate the origin of COVID-19, including the theory that it came from a laboratory in China. He said the US intelligence community was divided over whether it came from a laboratory accident or originated from human contact with an infected animal, and he asked teams to report back to him within 90 days.
The source said US intelligence officials were trying to find some witnesses or insiders during the initial phase of the epidemic in Wuhan, the city that first reported the outbreak in China, digging into “containment measures” and “restriction zones”, with their targets being people working in the medical system, biological research institutes or those living in Wuhan.
Officials are also gathering evidence to prove loopholes in China’s anti-epidemic work, examining detailed information on COVID-19 patients, the lives of residents under isolation, the timing of diagnosis and the movement of patients before infection, the source said.
According to the source, the next step for the US government will be to continue to put pressure on WHO and Director General Tedros Adhan Gebreyesus to make sure they will rely on the US.
The US government will also collude with its allies, such as Australia and the media, to suppress China in an attempt to accuse the Chinese government of “hiding the truth about the origin of the virus.”
Chinese virologists, as well as experts on US affairs, believe that research into the origin of the virus has become an important tool for the US to attack, discredit and suppress China politically. For the US, it has nothing to do with science.
Steps taken by intelligence officials show that Biden’s intention to trace the origin of the virus is purely political, not scientific, Yang Zhanqiu, a virologist at Wuhan University, told the Global Times.
The probe must be a technical problem requiring genetic analysis of the virus. Scientists from Asia, the Americas and Europe should analyse the genetic profile of the virus that has emerged in the region and then discuss the information together to confirm the next steps of the investigation, Yang said.
However, what Biden’s intelligence agencies are looking for may only serve as part of the evidence that he concocted a report blaming China to show his people that he is better than former US President Donald Trump, Yang said.
A foreign expert close to the joint WHO-China team had earlier told the Global Times newspaper that the Biden administration’s 90-day probe into the virus’s origins was a coordinated political campaign.
“If former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had real intelligence that would convince people, he would make it public”, – he said.
Yang Xiyu, a former Chinese diplomat and senior fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, said the intelligence research fully exposed the fact that the US sought to manufacture some material to prove China’s guilt, and the so-called research that insults and discriminates against China would not stop.
“The actions of the intelligence officials showed that the US has started” a political war “against China through research on the origin of the virus”, – Liu Xiang, a US research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
The US is trying to give the world the impression that the country can find the origins of the new coronavirus in China through its powerful intelligence capabilities and secret means to “prove” that the Chinese government should take responsibility for the US being hit by the epidemic, Liu said.
This is a “sick political war” being waged by the US in the face of an unprecedented health crisis, Liu said.
The expert said it has become a tradition for the US to launch a “political war” against countries it disagrees with. The US has a hardened organisation, experience and planning prowess. Its aim is to consume China’s diplomatic resources, but the US should be aware that “political war” is also a huge drain on US political and social resources, which is far greater than China’s actual losses.
Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at China Foreign Affairs University, also noted that the US has adopted similar strategies against other countries, and now it is affecting China, and the possibility that US intelligence agencies are making stuff up for malicious political motives cannot be ruled out.
Cao Xiki, Chen Qingqing and Bai Yuni, Global Times, China