Show 'enormous evidence' of COVID-19 originating from Wuhan lab: China asks Pompeo

Beijing, May 06: China on Wednesday dared US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to show "enormous evidence" he claimed to have to prove that the novel coronavirus originated from a lab in Wuhan and said he has no evidence to back up his claims.

On May 3, Pompeo said that the US has "enormous evidence" to show that the coronavirus began in the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Beijing has refused to give international scientists access to learn what happened.

"He (Pompeo) said 'enormous evidence'. Then show us," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here. "Pompeo cannot present any evidence because he does not have any," Hua said.

"This matter should be handled by scientists and professionals instead of politicians out of their domestic political need”. She said the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO) stated that the US has not presented any evidence to it so far to back up its claims.

"On the issue of the origin of coronavirus, people have different opinions. I think tracing the origin is a very serious matter. That should be researched by scientists and professionals," she said. "Almost all top scientists, including those in the US, believe that this virus came from nature, not man-made and there is no possibility that it was leaked from a lab," said.

"The WHO officials also said all the evidence showed that the virus is not man-made”, she said. Hua also said all countries must examine the reports that the cases of COVID-19 were reported in some countries in September and December last year. She said recent reports said coronavirus cases were reported in the US in October last year. Reports from France spoke of a coronavirus case detected from a patient in December last year, Hua said.

In the light of this "all countries must re-examine the cases emerged in 2019”, she said. She also challenged Pompeo to show evidence to prove his charge that the viruses in the past originated from labs in China. "Exactly when, where and which lab in China got such failures," she asked and called for an investigation into US' use of bacterial weapons in the past.

"The US used bacterial weapons in the Korean war and Agent Orange in the Vietnam war. In the recent decade, the US is blocking the protocol regime to the biological weapons convention”, she said.

Noting that the US CDC last year suspended research on pathogens at army lab, she said, "They have been silent on their purposes and safety. So, we hope the US can act in a responsible manner and respond to international calls to accept investigations and respond to concerns."

The novel coronavirus has so far killed over 2.5 lakh people and infected more than 3.6 million globally.