After the South Korean and US leaders issued a joint statement to investigate the origin of the coronavirus, the US President Biden ordered a re-investigation, and China is stepping up its response.
In a joint statement on the 21st of last month, the leaders of the Republic of Korea and the United States said, "We will also support transparent and independent evaluation and analysis of the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak and investigation into future epidemics of unknown origin." We will work with countries with similar positions to create a new health and security financing mechanism that can and will act as a catalyst.”
"We are asking the intelligence community to redouble our efforts to collect and analyze information and report back within 90 days so that we can come closer to a solid conclusion," Biden said in a statement. We will continue to work with like-minded partners around the world to pressure China to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation and to allow access to all relevant data and evidence.” announced cooperation with South Korea, its health ally.
A joint statement from the ROK-US summit said, “We are determined to take drastic measures to support the improvement of pandemic readiness in the Indo-Pacific region, and ensure that all countries build capacity to prevent, diagnose, and respond to infectious diseases in the Indo-Pacific region. We will work together and multilaterally to get out. To advance toward this goal, Korea will expand its involvement with the GHSA Steering Committee and Action Package Working Groups, support the GHSA goals and assist in bridging the gap between partner countries. To this end, we promise to make a new commitment of 200 million dollars over the period of 2021-2025,” revealing the Indo-Pacific health and security system at the expense of Korea.
President Biden mentioned “China” three times in his re-investigation statement, directly referring to “China’s responsibility”, instructing government agencies such as national laboratories to support the intelligence agency’s investigation, and notified Congress of the investigation.
President Biden previously announced that he would provide vaccines to 550,000 South Korean soldiers at a joint press conference at the Korea-U.S. summit, and South Korea expanded the target of US vaccines to include the Reserve Forces and Civil Defense Forces, military industry intelligence agencies, and the National Defense Research Institute.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) at a briefing on the 31st said, "It is the job of scientists, not intelligence agents, to find out the origin of the coronavirus." aimed
"In July 2019, a respiratory disease of unknown cause appeared in northern Virginia and a large-scale outbreak of e-cigarette-related disease in Wisconsin," said Zhao Lijian, spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. and laboratories around the world.
Zeng Guang, chief epidemiology scientist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Global Times on the 1st that "It is absurd to leave the work of scientists to intelligence agencies. Determining whether there was a laboratory leak is to trace human-animal infections." It's much easier than that, because if there was a lab leak, there's bound to be evidence such as infected staff or a contaminated environment," he said. "The WHO experts visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology and already reviewed all the homes, but no evidence was found. I think the story ends with that."
Immediately after the joint statement between the US and South Korea leaders, the conservative Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 23rd that, citing an undisclosed US intelligence agency report, three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology were hospitalized with symptoms similar to those when they contracted COVID-19 in November 2019.
In an interview with Fox News on the 24th, former President Trump (Republican) said, "There is a 'possibility' that came from a laboratory, but I think the word 'possibility' can be omitted. I think it came from,” he said.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a Republican, also told Fox News that "China is trying to cover up the facts. We know for sure that they cover up the virus. We'll find out that the evidence we've seen so far is consistent with the lab leaks." "If I'm wrong, I hope the CCP will come out and make a fool of me."