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China claimed Covid-19 may have originated in the United States and accused Washington of "evading responsibility" after president Donald Trump's administration blamed a lab leak in the Asian nation.
Beijing released a white paper on its pandemic response on Wednesday, less than two weeks after Mr Trump’s administration alleged that the virus was leaked from a lab in Wuhan, which the Communist government said was Washington's bid to “shift the blame”.
China argued that “substantial evidence” suggested that coronavirus might have come from the US earlier than the outbreak recorded in China.
China shared relevant information with the WHO and the international community in a timely manner, the white paper said, emphasising that a joint study by the WHO and China had concluded that a lab leak was "extremely unlikely".
The US should not continue to "pretend to be deaf and dumb", but should respond to the legitimate concerns of the international community, the white paper said.
The paper, released by the official Xinhua news agency, cited a Missouri lawsuit which resulted in a $24bn ruling against China for hoarding protective medical equipment and covering up the outbreak.
"Substantial evidence suggested the Covid-19 might have emerged in the United States earlier than its officially-claimed timeline, and earlier than the outbreak in China," it said.
“The US government, instead of facing squarely its failure in response to Covid-19 and reflecting on its shortcomings, has tried to shift the blame and divert people’s attention by shamelessly politicising SARS-CoV-2 origins tracing,” the white paper read.
"Despite domestic criticisms of its inaction or meddling, the US government has refused to examine its poor performance; rather, it has doubled down on its attempt to evade responsibility."
The White House launched a Covid-19 website on 18 April, in which it said the coronavirus came from a lab leak in China while criticising former president Joe Biden, former top US health official Anthony Fauci, and the World Health Organization.
The CIA said in January that the pandemic was more likely to have emerged from a lab in China than from nature, after the agency had for years said it could not reach a conclusion on the matter. It said it had "low confidence" in its new assessment and noted that both lab origin and natural origin remain plausible.
Chinese officials said the US administration in September 2020 stigmatised Covid-19 as "Chinese virus" which triggered a wave of hate crimes against Asian Americans.
China alleged that it "championed the cause of a global community of shared future and a community of health for all, and demonstrated a commitment to openness, transparency and responsibility at every stage".
An official at China's National Health Commission said the next step in origin-tracing work should focus on the US, according to Xinhua, which cited a statement about the white paper.
The Independent has reached out to the White House for comment.
English (US) ·