The South African Communist Party (SACP) commended China's contribution and its open attitude in virus origin tracing under the leadership of the World Health Organization (WHO), and reiterated its opposition to reprehensible moves that politicize scientific research in a statement issued on Thursday.

In the statement, the SACP urged the world to commend the role of scientists from China and 10 other countries under the leadership of the WHO in undertaking the research on the scientific field of COVID-19 origin or source tracing.

It praised China by saying that the country "has particularly been open to the scientific endeavor, contrary to the propaganda spread by the Western imperialist media."

Stressing the crucial role of scientific collaboration on COVID-19 source tracing, the SACP said it is a matter of science and rejected any attempts to politicize scientific research "in the interests of imperialist global agendas."

The statement further noted that several scientific findings showed that COVID-19 cases were detected before December 2019 in various places across the globe, pointing out that relevant report findings and recommendations "have recently been subjected to political rejection by the United States, as part of its obvious campaign to vilify China."

"Virus origin or source tracing is a scientific undertaking. The SACP denounces attempts at politicizing scientific research. A part of the attempts involves geographic location naming of viruses or attacks against scientific research because of the countries involved in it," said the statement.

It called on the international community to look at the issue of virus origin or source tracing in a science-based, objective and fair manner, and work jointly to advance global anti-pandemic cooperation.