Chinese think tank: US most likely origin of COVID-19

A face mask hangs on a gate in front of the New York Stock Exchange on May 26, 2020, in New York City. (Photo by AFP)

The United States is most likely the country where the coronavirus originated and that it is most responsible for the fast global spread of the deadly viral pathogen, according to a research report.

The report titled ‘US Responsible for Global Spread of COVID-19’ was jointly released by the Intelligence & Alliance Think Tank and the Taihe Institute in China on Friday.

China’s official Xinhua news agency published the report’s findings, saying data from multiple sources had shown that the United States was to blame for the coronavirus outbreak as its political manipulation of the disease had made the global anti-pandemic efforts difficult and challenging.

“Evidence indicating COVID-19 originated from the United States has kept cropping up,” the report said. “For example, the timeline of the outbreak in the United States has been continuously backdated, the role of the US military is implicated in the origin and spread of COVID-19 and early cases in many countries are linked to the United States.”

Calling the United States “the main force of global COVID-19 spread,” the report said the country missed the best time to contain the pandemic at an early stage and that its open-door policy as well as its irresponsible repatriation of immigrants had exacerbated the global spread of the virus.

Xinhua also said that the US troops stationed overseas have repeatedly violated epidemic prevention protocols and accelerated the transmission.

The country’s failure to control COVID-19 in international events has led to “super-spreading” of the virus and its unilateral sanctions have resulted in a humanitarian crisis, according to the report.

Stressing that the US political manipulation has made the global fight against the pandemic more difficult, the report said the country shirked responsibility for pandemic prevention, which undermined international anti-pandemic efforts.

“The United States has been obsessed with political self-interest and evaded due responsibility,” Xinhua cited the report as saying, adding that political polarization harmed both America and the world at large.

Underlining that the US should abandon its obsession with political self-interest and reflect on epidemic prevention and control, the report called on the country to stop politicizing the coronavirus and undermining international anti-pandemic cooperation and to actively share its vaccines with the world.

It also urged the US to conduct origins tracing research in a scientific manner and facilitate global economic recovery so that the COVID-19 pandemic will be eventually defeated.

The theory that the contagion had leaked from a Chinese lab was originally hyped up by, among others, the administration of former US president Donald Trump as part of his hawkish anti-China policies.

Since infecting its first victims in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, the pandemic has spread to nearly every country across the globe, causing more than 278 million infections and nearly 5.4 million deaths worldwide.

Last week, Trump said the US should make China pay for Covid disaster, demanding that the US tariffs on Chinese goods be increased “very substantially” as reparation payments for the chaos unleashed by the virus.

China has repeatedly called on the US to give a full clarification on its bio-military activities at home and abroad, a matter of concern shared by Russia and others.

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