Washington bashes Beijing again with Wuhan lab claims
The US administration has once again pointed the finger of blame at China over the new coronavirus outbreak, claiming that the flu-like pathogen originated in a medical laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
In an interview with ABC news on Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed there was "enormous evidence" that the coronavirus pandemic had emerged from a lab in Wuhan.
"There is enormous evidence that this is where it began," he said, declining to state firmly whether he thought the virus had been intentionally released.
Pompeo said he agreed with a US intelligence statement on Thursday that “the COVID-19 virus was not man-made or genetically modified"based on wide scientific consensus.
The US secretary of state also echoed President Donald Trump’s allegations about China and said, “We'll hold those responsible accountable."
Trump has been sharpening his rhetoric against China since the new coronavirus emerged in Wuhan in December last year and grew into a global pandemic.
The New York Times has reported that the White House is putting pressure on American intelligence agencies to provide evidence in support of Trump’s claims about the deadly virus being a laboratory construct.
In February, China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology dismissed rumors that the virus may have been artificially synthesized at one of its laboratories or perhaps escaped from such a facility.
Trump once again claimed on Thursday he was confident the coronavirus may have originated in a Chinese virology lab, but declined to elaborate.
Trump said in an interview with Reuters that he believes China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is proof that Beijing “will do anything they can” to make him lose his re-election bid in November.
US Democrats have criticized Trump since the epidemic erupted in Wuhan, saying he has failed to develop a comprehensive and effective plan for testing Americans for the coronavirus and tracing contacts of those who are infected by the virus, which has so far infected about 3.4 million people and killed over 244,000 across the world.
More than 3.8 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the US economy slid further into a crisis that is becoming the most devastating since the 1930s.
The economists have forecast that the unemployment rate for April could go as high as 20% — the highest rate since it reached 25% during the Great Depression.
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