China calls for 'full investigation' on US over COVID origin, botched response & bio-labs

China on Tuesday renewed its calls for the “full investigation” into the United States Army Futures Command installation located in Frederick, where the PRC is claiming the novel coronavirus first emerged, as contrary to the US’ Wuhan lab leak theory. Speaking at a state press conference, the Chinese government spokesperson, Zhao Lijian on June 21 said that in addition to that, China wants the botched response on part of the former Trump administration investigated, as well as a separate probe must be launched into the US’ secret bases and biological labs, including the Fort Detrick. China claims that the US soldiers had brought the novel coronavirus to the Chinese city of Wuhan during the World Military Games in October 2019. 

Zhao was responding to the White House press secretary Jen Psaki's remarks that the US needed to conduct an "independent investigation" on COVID-19. She was speaking in context to the WSJ's declassified report that the researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology and fell ill and were hospitalised in November 2019, much prior to China's official confirmation of the first coronavirus cases.  

"The United States government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses," the fact sheet had stated. 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on June 21 said that the US is in "no position to blackmail, coerce or smear China on behalf of the international community and allies. He added, that the Chinese MEA calls for a "full investigation into the US for the COVID-19 origin to make it clear who should be held accountable." 

'Patient zero began in US': China

This wouldn't be the first time Zhao accused the United States of not being ‘transparent to the world. Earlier, in response to the US' claims that China had attempted a cover-up of the pandemic, the Chinese government spokesperson said, “When did patient zero begin in the US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be the US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan,  Hubei province. Be transparent! Make public your data! The US owes us an explanation!” Zhao’s remark on Twitter in Chinese had translated.

Furthermore, Zhao had berated the US military for bringing the coronavirus into China, calling the US officials “immoral and irresponsible”. China's combative response was issued amid the US’ consistent allegations that China had attempted to ‘cover up’ the initial outbreak in Wuhan. He had also told a state news briefing that the US “does not care about facts and truth, nor is it interested in serious scientific origin tracing,” as he stressed that the US must “open itself up to investigations into its biological laboratories.”

The Chinese embassy slammed what it described the US' “hyped lab-leak hypothesis", saying that such unsubstantiated claims must be evidence-based. This came after the US president Joe Biden issued a statement, saying that he had asked the US national laboratories and other government agencies to assist the intelligence agencies to get more information on the coronavirus origin. "I have now asked the Intelligence Community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion, and to report back to me in 90 days." China meanwhile denounced the US’ move, stating that some political forces have been “fixated on political manipulation and blame games, and smear campaigns such as ‘lab leak theory’”.