The Chinese government has always supported the scientific tracing of the coronavirus origins, but opposes politicizing the study or using it as a tool to shift blame, said Zeng Yixin, deputy head of China's National Health Commission, on Sunday.

Zeng made the remarks in response to a U.S. intelligence community report on COVID-19 origins, which does not rule out either natural exposure or laboratory accident as the origin of SARS-CoV-2.

Zeng said the fact that the U.S. origin-tracing report was released by the intelligence community, not by professional medical institutions, is itself ironic.

He voiced support for scientists to conduct studies on the origins of the coronavirus in multiple countries around the world, including the U.S.

"It is a mendacious report made up for political purposes. There is no scientific basis or credibility in it," China's Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said on Saturday.

China firmly opposes the report on COVID-19 origins by the U.S. intelligence community and has made strong representations with the United States, he added.

More than 80 countries have written to the WHO director-general, issued statements, or sent diplomatic notes to voice their objection to the politicization attempts and call for the joint report by the WHO-China joint study team to be upheld. 

Over 300 political parties, social organizations and think tanks from more than 100 countries and regions have submitted a joint statement to the WHO Secretariat on opposing the politicization of origins tracing, Ma said, adding that over 25 million Chinese netizens have signed an open letter asking for an inquiry into the Fort Detrick base. 

The United States has been refusing to respond to the international community's reasonable doubts on the Fort Detrick biolab and the over 200 overseas bases for biological experiments, trying to cover up the truth and avoid being held responsible, Ma said. 

"The onus is on the United States to give the world an answer," he said. 

Ma urged the United States to immediately stop doing anything that poisons the atmosphere for international cooperation on origins tracing or undermines global solidarity against the pandemic, and return to the right track of science-based origins tracing and cooperation in the face of the pandemic. 

(Cover via CFP)

(With input from Xinhua)