The investigations will be an unwelcoming distraction from fighting the global health emergency, says China
According to a top diplomat in the UK, Chen Wen, the demand for independent international
investigations to look into the origins of the coronavirus disease is politically motivated which
would only divert China’s attention from battling the pandemic and crisis at hand. From the very
beginning, there have been many calls for international investigations on where exactly lies the
ground zero of this disease, which has claimed almost two lakh lives worldwide.
Rejecting the calls for investigations on the origins, Ms Chen told BBC, “we are fighting the virus
at the moment, we are concentrating all our efforts on fighting against the virus. Why talk about
an investigation into this? This will divert not only attention, it will divert resources.” She further
said that there has been a spread of rumours and misinformation, which can be harmful and can
negatively influence decisions. She also claimed that the spread of wrong information is like a
“political virus”, which can be as dangerous as the virus itself.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on April 23 said that Australia would push the talks for
investigations in the annual meeting of the World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of
the World Health Organization (WHO), scheduled for next month. Australia is one of the
members of the executive board of the assembly. Discussion on calls for a “lesson learnt”
review of health emergencies is already on the agenda of the assembly.
So far the governments in Europe have been careful of their engagement and diplomatic rows
with China amid the global health crisis. On the other hand, the United States has been
extremely vocal about its distrust in the Chinese authorities and their involvement in the spread
of the virus. Earlier this week, President Trump announced that the US would be freezing all
funding for WHO over their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Former US Ambassador to the
United Nations, Nikki Haley launched ‘Stop Communist China’ campaign. The state of Missouri
in the US has sued the Chinese government accusing it of negligence towards the spread of the
virus.
