Opinion

Anti-China animosity mars next stage of coronavirus origin study plan

The proposal for the second-phase WHO study ignores the conclusions and recommendations of the first-stage research, undoing the open and transparent scientific efforts previously

Origin-tracing efforts should build on the initial research and stay committed to the spirit of science, undistracted by politics

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Members of the WHO team investigating the origins of Covid-19 visit the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China’s Hubei province on February 3. Photo: AFP

Liu Guangyuan is Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Published: 4:00am, 6 Aug 2021Updated: 12:34pm, 6 Aug 2021

In March this year, a World Health Organization (WHO) team of international experts conducted the China part of a global study on the origins of Covid-19. The experts visited every place and met everyone they wanted to see.

Based on an in-depth analysis of the data, the WHO released a joint study that concluded that the introduction of the coronavirus through a laboratory incident was extremely unlikely. The study also pointed the way for the next stage of joint origin tracing in multiple countries and regions under a global framework.

Unfortunately, some countries have turned a blind eye to the report, continued to presume China guilty and even demanded the WHO Secretariat come up with a plan for the second phase of the study into the origins of Covid-19. Instead of facilitating science-based origin tracing, some politicians in these countries keep spreading the anti-China political virus, both to shift responsibility for their own botched pandemic response and to fabricate a new excuse to contain China.