Chinese envoy writes to WHO chief on COVID-19 origins-tracing

Chen Xu, permanent representative of China to the UN office at Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland, on Tuesday wrote to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, further reiterating China's consistent position on the issue of COVID-19 origins-tracing.

The hypothesis that the "introduction of SARS-CoV-2 into human population was caused by lab leak in the Wuhan Institute of Virology" is extremely unlikely, Chen said.

If some parties are of the view that the "lab leak" hypothesis remains open, it is the labs of Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina in the U.S. that should be subject to transparent investigation with full access, Chen added.

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Doubtful Points about Fort Detrick (U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease)

Coronavirus Research Conducted by Dr. Ralph Baric's Team at University of North Carolina

China has always supported and will continue to participate in the scientific origins tracing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Wednesday at a press conference.

China has twice invited the WHO to China for joint research, which produced scientific and authoritative conclusions that a lab leakage was "extremely unlikely," he stressed, adding that in fact, the international community and the U.S. public have serious concerns that the activities related to the Fort Detrick base are not legal, transparent or safe.

"The U.S. has been accusing the Wuhan Institute of Virology of introducing COVID-19 with its coronavirus studies. However, the U.S. is the biggest sponsor and practitioner of such kind of researches in the world," Wang continued.

"The team of Ralph S. Baric, particularly, is the authority of such kind of research with extremely mature capability in synergizing and modifying coronavirus. A probe into Baric's team and lab would clarify whether coronavirus research has created or will create SARS-CoV-2," he elaborated.

Wang urged the U.S. to stop political manipulation of the origins-tracing issue and called on the international community to resist politicizing the issue of origins tracing and promote it back to the right track of scientific cooperation.