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

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

China-EU relations

Kinling Loin Beijing

Published: 6:00pm, 23 Jul 2021

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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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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.

According to the Chinese statement, Silva said: “Science and politics should be separated; origin tracing is for a better future instead of aiming to target or blame certain countries. Portugal supports investigations that uphold science and professionalism, and is against any politicising of such work.”

China is facing growing calls from the EU and countries including Britain and the United States to open up for further investigations into the origins of Covid-19, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Beijing has said it complied with the investigations led by the World Health Organization (WHO) early this year, and accused countries of targeting China politically in their calls for a second probe.

Although Portugal’s clout in Europe may be limited by its relatively small economy, it has been viewed by Beijing as one of the easier EU member countries to work with, at a time when China’s ties with the EU have soured over human rights issues and the related stalling this year of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment.

The Portuguese government has said it does not see China as a threat. It has also been less forceful about human rights than some bigger EU members and last year complained after George Glass, then the US ambassador to Portugal, said Lisbon must choose between the United States and China or risk the consequences. Yet Silva has also rejected suggestions that Lisbon was a “special friend” of China.

In 2017, Chinese investment in Portugal totalled US$4.4 billion, more than three times the US$1.3 billion from the US, according to Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development figures cited by the European Think-tank Network on China.

China on Thursday rejected a WHO plan for a second phase of investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, which included the hypothesis that the virus could have escaped from a Chinese laboratory.

After their month-long investigation in China that began in January, a group of WHO-designated scientists largely supported the natural outbreak theory, legitimised claims that the virus could have reached China through imported frozen food, and discarded the lab hypothesis. However, China was also accused of not providing all the data needed for the investigation.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: china seeks Portugal's support to stop ‘politicising’ search for origins of coronavirus