However, it is clear to all that this is nothing but a complete political farce.

The US intelligence community has committed numerous infamies. Its involvement in assassinations, coups and surveillance in different places around the world are no longer a secret. It used a tube of laundry powder as evidence to convict Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction and staged the “white helmets” video as an excuse for air attacks in Syria.

That the US intelligence community, rather than professional medical institutions, issued the origin-tracing investigation report is itself against science. They cannot even reach a consensus on the origin of COVID-19 within their intelligence community, let alone the final conclusion, which is far from the truth.

The so-called origin-tracing investigation of the US government by its intelligence community is clearly politicizing the issue of origin tracing. Such a practice disturbs and sabotages international cooperation on origin tracing and on the global fight against the pandemic.

Tracing of the origin is a complex issue of science, and it should and can only be conducted by scientists from around the world. This is the consensus of the international community. The US disregards science and facts, and is instead obsessed with political manipulation and origin tracing by the intelligence community.

Some US politicians and media never stop their stigmatizing and politicizing campaign. They spread the “lab leak theory”, attempting to overturn the World Health Organization’s (WHO) joint report. Such actions have zero interest in science and distort the facts, showing no respect for science and scientists around the world.

Without providing any evidence, the US has cooked up one story after another to defame and accuse China. The aim is to use origin tracing to shift blame onto China and shirk responsibility for its failure in fighting the pandemic.

The US assertion of lack of transparency, refusal to provide complete information and creating obstacles for origin tracing on the part of China is only an excuse for its politicizing and stigmatizing campaign. China attaches great importance to international scientific cooperation on origin tracing, and has taken an active part in such cooperation. Acting on the principles of openness, transparency, science and cooperation, it has twice invited WHO experts to China for origin-tracing research.

Chinese and foreign experts cooperated on the drafting of the joint research report and jointly concluded that it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus was introduced by a laboratory that is highly recognized by the global scientific community. Their report is authoritative and can stand the test of science and history, laying a good foundation for global cooperation on origin tracing. It must be respected and implemented.

Any future origin tracing should be carried out on its basis. Chinese experts proposed their recommendations to the WHO in July, in order to improve the next phase of COVID-19 origin tracing.

The US has been shying away from tracing the origin on its home soil. It is actually the US that is not being transparent, responsible and cooperative on this issue. The timeline of the outbreak in the US has been backdated several times. In at least five American states, there had been infections before the first confirmed case in the US was announced.

Besides, the international community has long raised concerns over safety issues and illegal, nontransparent and unsafe practices at Fort Detrick, and coronavirus and genetic modification experiments by the Baric team at the University of North Carolina. The onus on the US is to give the world an answer. It should follow the principles of fairness and justice and investigate Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina.

The US attempts to politicize origin tracing have found no support and have met widespread opposition from the international community. Scholars from different countries believe that the so-called report on origin tracing issued by the US intelligence community is not scientific and credible at all, but is a tool to slander China.

More than 80 countries have written to the WHO director general, issued statements or sent diplomatic notes to voice their objection to the politicization attempts and call for the joint report by the WHO-China joint study team to be upheld; over 300 political parties, social organizations and think tanks from more than 100 countries and regions have submitted a joint statement to the WHO secretariat opposing the politicization of origin tracing; and over 25 million Chinese netizens have signed an open letter asking for an inquiry into the Fort Detrick base. These are people’s calls for justice.

Politicizing origin tracing will lead nowhere. Both China and Indonesia uphold tracing the origin of COVID-19 in a scientific way. As the pandemic is still spreading around the world, China is willing to continue working with Indonesia to advocate the spirit of science, adopt a science-based approach, and follow the law of science, to resist the setbacks of politicizing origin tracing and bring it back to the right track of scientific cooperation, so as to enhance global cooperation in fighting the pandemic and jointly contribute to the ultimate victory of mankind over the pandemic.

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The writer is Chinese ambassador to Indonesia.