Chinese Embassy in France was appalled by a story published on French newspaper Le Figaro accusing the so-called "improper" handling of the waste disposal by Wuhan P4 Laboratory in Wuhan, once the epicenter of the coronavirus in China.

The report cited other media, saying research workers of the lab threw the untreated biosolid down the drain, some of them even sold the animals on trial to local markets to make extra income.

The embassy responded in anger to the writer Isabelle Lasserre, pointing out that this report has extremely damaged the reputation of Chinese scientific research institutions and even the country's image.

The story would be treated as smears if the author can't supply the exact name of the media outlets she quoted, it added. 

Instead, the embassy recommended CGTN's interview with Yuan Zhiming, researcher of Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, for the author to get more accurate information.

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(Cover: File photo of Wuhan P4 Laboratory. /Chinanews.com)