The U.S. intelligence community’s COVID-19 origin-tracing investigation is set to tarnish China’s image, says Ambassador Xiao Qian, on Wednesday.

Mr Xiao, the Chinese Ambassador to Indonesia, in a recent editorial in Jakarta Post, described the report  as “nothing but a complete political farce.’’

He said the report detailing the origin of COVID-19 after a 90-day close-door investigation by the Americans goes against science and would not yield any results.

Mr Xiao mentioned that without providing any evidence, the United States has “cooked up one story after another to defame and accuse China,” and to shirk responsibility for its failure in fighting the pandemic.

As for origin-tracing, Mr Xiao said: “it is actually the U.S. that is not being transparent, responsible, and cooperative on this issue.

“The timeline of the outbreak in the U.S. has been backdated several times.

“Besides, the international community has long raised concerns over safety issues and illegal, non-transparent, and unsafe practices at Fort Detrick.

“Coronavirus and genetic modification experiments were also carried out by the Baric team at the University of North Carolina.’’

Mr Xiao also commented that the U.S. attempts to politicise origin-tracing has found no support and has met widespread opposition from the international community.

He said as the pandemic is still spreading around the world and China is willing to continue working with Indonesia to bring the origin-tracing work back to the right track of scientific cooperation.

Mr Xiao added that cooperation would jointly contribute to the ultimate victory of mankind over the pandemic. 

Beijing has striven to push back the blame for the spread of the global pandemic which broke out in Wuhan in December 2019.

Accusations and counter-accusations have been traded by China and the U.S. on the origin of the deadly virus ravaging the world.

(Xinhua/NAN)