ugc_banner

Pompeo has no evidence, says China on coronavirus origin in lab

WION Web Team
BeijingUpdated: May 06, 2020, 07:23 PM IST
main img
File photo: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Photograph:(Reuters)

Story highlights

President Trump has repeatedly termed coronavirus as the 'Wuhan virus' and said that he had evidence that it originated from a lab in China but refused to divulge details

China said on Wednesday said that "Mr Pompeo repeatedly spoke up but he cannot present any evidence" after the US secretary of state asserted that the Trump administration had "enormous evidence" to show that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab.

"Mr Pompeo repeatedly spoke up but he cannot present any evidence. How can he? Because he doesn't have any," China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

"I think this matter should be handed to scientists and medical professionals, and not politicians who lie for their own domestic political ends," Chunying added.

"We urge the US to stop shifting the focus to China," Hua said adding,"it should handle its domestic affairs properly first. The most important thing now is to control the US' domestic pandemic spread and think of ways to save lives."

China and the US have been at loggerheads over the origin of the virus with the Chinese government even suggesting that it was spread by the US military in Wuhan. President Trump has repeatedly termed coronavirus as the "Wuhan virus" and said that he had evidence that it originated from a lab in China but refused to divulge details.

Several experts including the US intelligence community had earlier said that it "concurs with the wide scientific consensus that COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified"

"The intelligence community will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was a result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan," it had said.