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The Chinese government — which has defied efforts by international inspectors to examine labs in the country or share detailed information about COVID-19 — still claimed on Tuesday that it has been “open and transparent” in the search to determine how the global pandemic originated.
China had “shared the most data and research results on virus tracing and made important contributions to global virus tracing research,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning Mao told reporters after the US Energy Department assessed the coronavirus leaked from a lab in the city of Wuhan.
Mao went on to demand the US answer questions about its own biological labs and repeated a conspiracy theory pushed by China that the deadly disease was developed and leaked from Fort Detrick, a military installation in Maryland.
“Politicizing the issue of virus tracing will not smear China but will only damage the US’ own credibility,” Mao said, responding to a reporter asking about her reaction to US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns demanding more transparency from Beijing.
