China’s foreign ministry has warned against what it called possible “political manipulation” of a renewed probe by the World Health Organisation (WHO) into the origins of Covid-19, while saying it would support the international body’s efforts.
The WHO has released a proposed list of 25 experts to advise it on next steps in the search for the origins of the virus after its earlier efforts were attacked for going too easy on China, where the first human cases were detected in late 2019.
Beijing was accused of withholding raw data on early cases during a visit by a WHO team in February and has since resisted calls for further investigation, saying the US and others were politicising the matter.
A foreign ministry spokesperson said China would “continue to support and participate in global scientific tracing and firmly oppose any forms of political manipulation”.
"Following a public call for experts, WHO today announced the proposed members of the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens, or SAGO"-@DrTedros https://t.co/oYAGHx6z5w
Advertisement— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) October 13, 2021
“We hope that all parties concerned, including the WHO secretariat and the advisory group, will effectively uphold an objective and responsible scientific attitude,” Zhao Lijian told reporters at a daily briefing.
The experts proposed by the UN health agency include some who were on the original team that went to Chinese city of Wuhan to investigate the origins of Covid-19.
The findings of the original WHO-led team were inconclusive, and the experts released a report concluding it was “extremely unlikely” that coronavirus leaked from a Wuhan lab, prompting criticism from outside scientists that the theory had not been properly vetted.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus later acknowledged it had been “premature” to dismiss the lab theory.
Beijing has repeatedly questioned whether the virus did indeed originate in China, and has called for investigations into US military laboratories without providing any solid evidence.
