China urges U.S. to stop politicizing COVID-19 origins tracing

China urges the U.S. to stop political manipulation of the origins tracing of COVID-19 and to disclose information about its bio-labs at Fort Detrick and around the world, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Thursday.

Last week, the U.S. Senate passed a bill requiring the Biden administration to declare a Chinese lab leak as COVID-19's most likely origin while the U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said Wednesday there is not yet agreement across the intelligence community on the COVID-19's origins.

The spokesperson said the U.S. side has insisted on politicizing, instrumentalizing and weaponizing the origins-tracing, hyping up the "lab-leak" theory without any evidence to smear and attack China, and poisoned the atmosphere for science-based global origins-tracing.

She reiterated that China always supports and participates in global science-based origins tracing.

Political manipulation from the U.S. has restricted global science-based research on origins tracing, she said, adding that the U.S. has never invited WHO expert groups to the U.S. for joint study, or shared any early data.

"Instead, it has turned a blind eye to the world's concerns about U.S. bio-military bases at Fort Detrick and around the world."

Politicizing origins-tracing would only hamper science-based cooperation on the issue, disrupt united effort to combat the pandemic, and undermine global health governance mechanisms, she added.