China unexpectedly releases white paper on pandemic, raises possibility that COVID-19 originated in the US

COVID-19 - Ảnh 1. — The Wuhan Institute of Virology in Hubei Province, China in this photo taken in February 2021 - Photo: REUTERS

According to Reuters, in a white paper on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic published on April 30, China said that COVID-19 may have originated in the United States, after the Trump administration accused the virus of leaking from a laboratory in China.

China's white paper was released after the White House launched a website on the COVID-19 pandemic on April 18, which claimed the virus originated from a leak in a Chinese laboratory and criticized former President Joe Biden, former top US health official Anthony Fauci and the World Health Organization (WHO).

In a white paper released by the State Council Information Office of China and quoted by Xinhua, China accused the US of politicizing the issue of the origin of COVID-19.

This document cites a lawsuit in the state of Missouri (USA), in which a US judge ordered China to pay $24 billion in damages to the state of Missouri for accusing Beijing of misleading the world about COVID-19 and hoarding protective equipment.

The white paper said China had shared relevant information with the World Health Organization and the international community in a timely manner, citing the conclusion from a joint study between WHO and China that the possibility of the virus leaking from a laboratory was "extremely unlikely".

The document stressed that the US should not continue to "pretend to be deaf and dumb", but needs to respond to the legitimate concerns of the international community.

"There is substantial evidence that COVID-19 may have emerged in the United States earlier than the officially announced timeline, and earlier than the outbreak in China. A comprehensive and in-depth investigation into the origins of the virus should be conducted in the United States," the white paper said.

China has previously called on the WHO to investigate the Fort Detrick laboratory in the US. Since the early days of the pandemic, Chinese officials and media have spread conspiracy theories that COVID-19 originated at Fort Detrick, a US military research facility in Maryland.

Meanwhile, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in January assessed that the COVID-19 pandemic more likely originated in a laboratory in China than in nature, after years of saying it could not draw a conclusion on the matter.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/trung-quoc-bat-ngo-cong-bo-sach-trang-ve-dai-dich-neu-kha-nang-covid-19-bat-nguon-tu-my-202505010707278.htm