China seeks to dismiss US coronavirus claims as calls for compensation grow
- Article published by state news agency Xinhua seeks to dismiss claims linking Wuhan lab to outbreak and insists there is no basis for it to pay damages
- Observers say lengthy rebuttal of US claims China is to blame for Covid-19 crisis highlights how badly relations have deteriorated
China has issued a lengthy rebuttal dismissing claims it mishandled the Covid-19 pandemic and denying claims that there had been safety problems at a virology lab in Wuhan.
The rebuttal published by state news agency Xinhua follows an escalating war of words between China and the United States with President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saying there is evidence to link the secure facility to an accidental leak of the coronavirus that causes the disease.
On Sunday, Science and Technology Daily published an interview with Yuan Zhiming, the director of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in which he outlined its security procedures, including the use of negative air pressure to prevent pathogens spreading to the outside.
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There have also been growing calls from around the world for Beijing to investigate the origins of the coronavirus and pay damages to those affected.
Xinhua’s report said scientists were investigating the origins of the virus and added that even though it was first recorded in Wuhan that did not mean it had originated from there, comparing it to the emergence of HIV, which was first identified in America.
“Scientists around the world have started looking into the origin of the virus, and presented a lot of academic viewpoints about the new coronavirus,” the article published on Saturday said.
“Chinese scientists are also launching related studies, hoping to find out the origin and provide scientific evidence for future prevention work”.