Chinese institutes accuse US of being source of Covid-19 and ‘failing to take responsibility’

Chinese think tanks accuse the US of engaging in ‘virus origin tracing terrorism’

File: Travellers wearing face masks wait in front of a departures board at Beijing’s international airport on 10 August 2021 (AFP via Getty Images)

A group of Chinese think tanks have called the US a “failed country” and a “suspected source of the outbreak” of the Covid-19 pandemic, reviving the debate around the origins of the coronavirus.

Most scientists believe the virus likely originated in or near Wuhan in China, but the Chinese government has repeatedly promoted the idea that it could have been imported from elsewhere.

In a joint report released on Monday, researchers from the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University, the Taihe Institute, and the Intellisia Institute detailed the alleged failings of the US in the handling of the pandemic.

The report said US was a “country where the virus spreads” and demanded an international investigation on whether the virus originated in the US.

The report, titled America Ranked First?!: The Truth about America’s fight against Covid-19, slammed the efforts of the US government, saying its “pandemic prevention and control, policy measures, and source investigation went against science and common sense, and were the direct reasons why the United States is a ‘failed country in fighting the Pandemic.’”

“The federal system under the competition between the two major parties failed to take on responsibilities, giving prevarications at different levels. It constituted a ‘Disunited America’ image in the fight against the pandemic,” said the report, mostly referencing US media, including The New York Times, Washington Post and CNN to arrive at its conclusion.

This photo taken on 9 August 2021 shows an employee wearing personal protective equipment spraying disinfectant as part of Covid-19 measures at a factory in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province (AFP via Getty Images)

In its analysis, researchers also criticised media company Bloomberg for naming the US as the “best place to be in the Covid-19 era,” in its Covid Resilience Index released in June.

“Bloomberg’s rankings are not about the safety of the American people. They are only about the need for the free flow of capital and the desire for excessive profits,” it said.

The report also said a “conspiracy” about the origins of coronavirus pandemic has “fuelled bullying and hatred of Asians”, claiming Asian-American discrimination cases nearly doubled in March 2021 alone.

The researchers said more than 20 million US citizens were still traveling abroad in the wake of the pandemic, adding the country has shirked “its responsibility with the global spread of the pandemic.”

They also targeted the US’s vaccine management, saying the country exports “less than one per cent of its vaccine production” and that it disrupted the pandemic response by “withdrawing from the WHO and rejoining the WHO.”

The report also had harsh words for the US’s push for gathering more intelligence about the origins of the virus, accusing the country of engaging in “virus origin tracing terrorism.”

“Instead of curbing the global spread of the virus, the United States has engaged in ‘virus origin tracing terrorism’,” said the report. “It puts the presumption of guilt against other countries and is practicing vaccine nationalism. It is sickly benefiting at the expense of others and creating international humanitarian disasters.”

The report concluded that “objective facts have shown that the US is well deserved to be the world’s no. 1 anti-pandemic failure (sic)”.

Wang Wen, director of the Chongyang Institute, said he was angered by the US not accepting responsibility for the pandemic and that the report was “not meant to engage in a war of words with the US”, but reflect on the failures in the past for future lessons.

“The US got the gold at the Olympics that just concluded, but the US is not first in its pandemic response, and is the complete opposite,” he was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post.

The report was published ahead of the release of an ongoing inquiry by US intelligence agencies that are looking into whether the pandemic originated as a zoonotic disease, after jumping from an animal or two onto a human, or if it was the result of a laboratory leak.

The two countries have clashed and traded charges over the origin of the pandemic in the past as well. The US, that has consistently accused China of not cooperating in the investigation into the origins of pandemic and its lack of transparency during the early stages of the outbreak, is yet to respond to the criticisms.