The Chinese Embassy in the U.S. on Wednesday published an article on its website clarifying facts about COVID-19 origins and calling for science-based origin-tracing work.

"For some time, a few American media outlets have been claiming that SARS-CoV-2 was leaked from Chinese laboratories and thus presuming guilt on the part of China," the embassy wrote.

"In the spirit of respecting facts, science and justice, Chinese Embassy in the United States submitted an opinion article to some American media to state its position and clarify facts, but our submissions were all rejected," it added.

By doing so, the U.S. is "wrongly blaming others without giving them the chance to defend themselves," the embassy said, asking "is this what the American-style 'freedoms of the press and of speech' are all about?"

As the virus keeps mutating and becomes more difficult to deal with, the embassy calls for cooperation between the world's two major economies in pandemic response and vaccines rollout. 

WHO-China report can 'stand the test of science and history'

In the article, the embassy reiterated that the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese scientists have conducted two joint study missions in China, and concluded that it is "extremely unlikely" that the virus was leaked from a lab.

"Their report is authoritative and can stand the test of science and history," the embassy wrote.

It reminded that up to now, 70 countries have called for recognizing the findings of the WHO-China joint mission report in their letters to the WHO.

Consensus among global scientists: SARS-CoV-2 originated from nature

It also recapped the consensus among international academic and medical communities: SARS-CoV-2 originated from nature.

On March 26, 2020, Dr Francis Collins, director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, wrote in his blog that the coronavirus almost certainly originated in nature, and was not the product of purposeful manipulation in a lab.

In a statement on April 30, 2020, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced that the "intelligence community also concurs with the wide scientific consensus that the virus was not manmade or genetically modified."

On July 5, 24 world-renowned medical experts affirmed in the top medical journal The Lancet that suggestions of a laboratory-leak source of the pandemic remain without scientifically validated evidence.

On July 16, 22 Chinese and foreign scientists used the evolution theories of Richard Dawkins, a prominent British evolutionary biologist, to expound on why SARS-CoV-2 could only come from nature in their co-authored piece "On the origin of SARS-CoV-2 – The blind watchmaker argument."