BEIJING: 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.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo renewed his aggressive criticism of China over its handling of the coronavirus, saying it could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives and spared the world an economic downturn if it had been more transparent.
“They knew. China could have prevented the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people worldwide,” Pompeo said. “China could have spared the world a descent into global economic malaise. They had a choice but instead instead China covered up the outbreak in Wuhan.”