China seeks Portugal’s backing in opposing politicising of Covid-19 probe

Name: WHO ends Covid-19 mission in Wuhan, says lab leak ‘extremely unlikely’
Uploaded: 2021-07-23T10:00:12.000Z
Duration: 1 min 56 s
Description: WHO ends Covid-19 mission in Wuhan, says lab leak ‘extremely unlikely’

Foreign Minister Wang Yi says in meeting with Lisbon he hopes the two nations can jointly oppose political manipulation of coronavirus origin tracing

Beijing faces calls from the West to open up for further investigations into the pandemic’s origins

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The WHO team visited China in January to try to determine the origins of Covid-19, but some nations are calling for a second investigation. Photo: AFP

Kinling Lo

Published: 6:00pm, 23 Jul 2021Updated: 9:57pm, 23 Jul 2021

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for Portugal’s support in opposing “politicising” the search for the coronavirus’ origins, as Beijing faces increasing pressure from the West to allow further investigation into how the pandemic began.

“[We] hope we can jointly oppose political manipulation of the coronavirus origin tracing, urge against any ‘political virus’ and safeguard the overall situation of solidarity against the pandemic,” Wang was quoted as saying in a Chinese foreign ministry statement on Friday.

It said Wang made the remarks on Thursday when he held a virtual meeting with his Portuguese counterpart Augusto Santos Silva.

He added that China supported Portugal in performing a bigger role in international affairs, and would support more Chinese enterprises to invest in the country and allow the countries’ relationship to bring greater economic benefits.

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WHO ends Covid-19 mission in Wuhan, says lab leak ‘extremely unlikely’

The sanctions imposed by the European Union on China over alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang were not conducive to good ties between China and Europe, Wang said, adding that China and Europe had no fundamental conflict of interest or rivalry.