China’s foreign ministry on Monday dismissed as “premature” growing calls an independent investigation into the origins and spread of the deadly Chinese coronavirus, as a coalition of nations prepare to canvas the possibility at this week’s World Health Assembly (WHA).
Spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters during a daily briefing that despite the infection killing more than 300,000 people globally, the “vast majority” of countries do not yet think the pandemic is over, according to Reuters. As such, he argued it is too soon to entertain any line of inquiry.
The outright rejection of any exposition of the facts relating to the virus came after White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro stated China deliberately allowed the coronavirus to spread to the rest of the world and that virus “could have been contained in Wuhan.”
As Breitbart News reported, Navarro said, “China hid the virus behind the shield of the World Health Organization, and that was a time, Gerry, when that virus could have been contained in Wuhan. Instead, what China did was put hundreds of thousands of Wuhanians and Chinese on planes that were allowed to go to Milan and New York and elsewhere, but not to Beijing and Shanghai.”
Despite the growing clamor for China to take responsibility for its actions, President Xi Jinping is is scheduled to give a video speech from Beijing on Monday for the opening ceremony of the W.H.A. during which he is expected to rebut criticism of China’s actions – or lack thereof.
As Breitbart News reported, at least 62 countries beg to differ with the official view of the Chinese Communist Party.
They are all backing Australia’s push for an official examination into the World Health Organization’s bungled response to the deadly pandemic which was first identified in the southern Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne on Monday said it was encouraging to see so many countries backing the inquiry, SBS News reports.
“I think what it illustrates is a broad view that given the experience of COVID-19 – over 300,000 deaths, millions of people around the world losing their jobs, the impact on economies from one corner of the globe to the other – that there is a strong view that it is appropriate to engage in a review of what has happened.
“I don’t want to preempt speculate about the outcome, those discussions will be under way later this evening. I think it’s a win for the international community.”
The motion Australia will put to the W.H.A. requires the director-general of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to “initiate at the earliest appropriate moment, and in consultation with the Member States, a stepwise process of impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation”.
The details call for an investigation into all the “experience gained and lessons learned from the W.H.O.-coordinated international health response to COVID-19”.
Australia’s inquiry also wants and evaluation of the “effectiveness of the mechanisms at W.H.O.’s disposal and the actions of W.H.O. and their timelines pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic”.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has urged all nations to back Australia’s call for answers while at the same time taking Beijing to task over its reluctance to cooperate with countries seeking answers to the origin and spread of the pandemic.
U.S. Department of Sate / Facebook
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