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The P4 laboratory in Wuhan, which studies the world’s most dangerous diseases. Top US officials have tied the facility to the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: AFP

US claims of China coronavirus lab leak an ‘attempt to distract’ from Trump’s own mistakes: Germany

  • A German intelligence report said the allegations are a ‘calculated attempt to distract’ from Washington’s own failings
  • On Wednesday, Secretary of State Pompeo renewed his widely contested charge that the coronavirus likely originated in a Chinese lab
Germany’s defence ministry and BND foreign spy agency have privately cast doubt on American claims that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a Chinese lab, media reported on Friday.

An internal memo prepared for Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer “classifies the American claims as a calculated attempt to distract” from Washington’s own failings, Der Spiegel reported.

US President Donald Trump is attempting “to distract from his own mistakes and direct Americans’ anger at China”, Spiegel cited from the document. A defence ministry spokesman declined to confirm the existence of the memo when contacted.
Meanwhile, public broadcaster NDR cast doubt on the existence of a reported joint paper from the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance of Britain, the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand that allegedly accuses China of playing down the extent of the virus outbreak.

BND chiefs told MPs in a confidential Berlin parliamentary committee hearing that its “Five Eyes” partners claimed to have “no knowledge” of such a report, NDR wrote.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office, responsible for oversight of the BND, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump on Wednesday described the coronavirus pandemic as “the worst attack we’ve ever had”, calling it “worse than Pearl Harbor … worse than the World Trade Centre” and saying it “could have been stopped in China”.

On Friday, Johns Hopkins University’s real-time tally showed 2,448 US coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the American total to 75,543, while total cases numbered over 1.2 million.

Fauci dismisses coronavirus lab origin claims as ‘circular argument’

On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo renewed his widely contested charge that the coronavirus likely originated in a Chinese laboratory.

“We don’t have certainty, and there is significant evidence that this came from the laboratory. Those statements can both be true,” he told reporters, adding later that China had “perpetrated” the virus.

Beijing has repeatedly hit back at the claims.

China said on Friday it supports the establishment of a panel led by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to review the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, after facing global pressure to allow an international investigation.

The review should be conducted in an “open, transparent and inclusive manner” at an “appropriate time after the pandemic is over”, under the leadership of WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a briefing.

Spiegel reported that German authorities also targeted China with criticism, citing “BND information” that Beijing pressured the WHO to delay issuing a global warning after the initial outbreak in Wuhan.

“In a January 21 telephone call, Chinese President Xi Jinping asked Tedros to hold back information about person-to-person transmission and delay a pandemic warning,” the news weekly wrote on its website.

“According to the BND’s assessment, China’s information policy cost four to six weeks of time to fight the virus worldwide,” Spiegel added.

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