China has rejected a World Health Organization's (WHO) plan for a second-phase investigation into the origin of COVID-19, which includes the hypothesis saying it could have escaped from a Chinese laboratory. CGTN spoke to Muhammad Asif Noor, director of the Pakistan-based Institute of Peace and Diplomatic Studies, who has studied the plan.

CGTN: China rejected a WHO plan for a second phase of investigation into the origin of COVID-19, which includes the lab leak hypothesis. What are your thoughts on the plan?

Noor: The plan is beyond comprehension, and we fail to understand that those findings done in the first phase will be conducted again in the second-phase plan. Why not, the second phase is based on/designed to further what has been found in the first phase and move the investigation in the new directions and to other countries as well.

The WHO should also investigate Fort Detrick and its 200-plus biolabs overseas. In particular, the Fort Detrick base is the headquarters of the U.S. biological militarization activities, and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases is the principal entity. The international community and the American public have long voiced concerns about the unsafe activities in Fort Detrick. On these questions, the U.S. side has never given any explanations to its own people and the international community.

The U.S. should invite WHO experts to investigate the University of North Carolina. The U.S. has been accusing the Wuhan Institute of Virology of introducing COVID-19 with its coronavirus studies.

The U.S. should release the data concerning the sickened American military athletes who attended the Military World Games in Wuhan. In October 2019, it sent more than 300 people to Wuhan for the Games. This should also be investigated.

CGTN: We're nearly 18 months into this global pandemic now. There's growing friction globally over its origin and the best way to trace it. Some countries want more investigations in China; Beijing wants leads in other countries investigated. What are your thoughts on the origin-tracing investigation as a whole?

Noor: We all need to rely on the science to help us come out of crisis. Similarly, if we are trying to trace the origin of the virus then we still need to rely on the scientific investigations and procedures rather than politicization and focusing on only one country, that is China.

As the WHO has been following and on the second phase of the investigation to find out the trace of virus, then in the second phase I strongly encourage the WHO and other international experts to expand their sphere of findings to other countries. China has raised the alarm to the world that the virus is here and it does not necessarily has the origins in China unless and until we are having a fair investigation done.

CGTN: On COVID-19 origin tracing, you suggested that the West's treatment of China was "a deadly and harmful political virus," what do you mean by this?

Noor: This virus in mind is more deadly and harmful than any other virus. As major powers and global superpower, there is a need to have a responsibility to help humanity come out of this challenging time. If we continue to blame each other and focus attention only on politicization of the origin of the coronavirus, then we won't be able to work together on a common cause to help communities to come out of these difficult times.