China has refused to accuse it of hiding information about the outbreak of the emerging coronavirus (Covid-19), or of trying to politicize the crisis, and criticized what it described as "false assumptions such as the source of the virus", saying that it dealt with the matter transparently and informed the world of the virus's developments in a timely manner. "Some foreign politicians and the media have worked on supposed charges regarding the source of the virus, and they have characterized it and politicized the epidemic crisis," Bloomberg News quoted head of the Information Office of the State Council, Xu Lin, as saying yesterday.
He added: "False assumptions such as that China is the source of the virus or that China has hidden the virus, are unfounded, illogical, and contempt for science."
It is noteworthy that the outbreak of the Corona virus in the beginning of the crisis in China raised tensions between China and a number of countries, most notably the United States of America. US President Donald Trump has accused China more than once of failing to contain the virus. China denied the accusations, sent medical supplies and doctors to countries facing the Corona virus, and Beijing sought to raise doubts about the alleged source of the virus from China, and a Chinese Foreign Ministry official earlier spoke of conspiracy theories linking the outbreak and the US military.
Meanwhile, Chinese Minister of Science and Technology, Wang Zhegang, said that China will increase international cooperation if it succeeds in developing a vaccine for the emerging corona virus, and stressed during a press conference in Beijing that China will make the vaccine a "global public good" when it is ready.
China is making huge efforts in the global race to develop a vaccine to prevent the emerging corona virus, as the pandemic started from the city of Wuhan in central China. Chinese researchers are currently conducting five separate clinical trials in humans, which are half of all trials being conducted worldwide to find a vaccine resistant to the disease, according to data compiled by the World Health Organization.
"Developing a vaccine is still an essential strategy in our efforts to overcome the emerging coronavirus," Wang said during the press conference, but added that this was very difficult and time-consuming.
The Chinese government urged global cooperation in this field in a document revealed by the State Council Information Office during the press conference, and said that the international community should stop exchanging accusations and stop politicizing the issue of the virus, but no country was mentioned by name.
On the other hand, the US Senate Republican, Senator Rick Scott, said yesterday that the United States has evidence that China is trying to slow down Western countries' attempts to develop a vaccine to prevent "Covid-19" or completely fail it.
He added, during an interview with BBC television: "We have to accomplish the development of this vaccine. Unfortunately, we have evidence that China is trying to foil us or slow down the process. ” He continued: "China does not want us to do it first ... They decided to be an opponent of the Americans and I believe for democracy around the world." When asked about the evidence the United States has about that, Scott declined to provide details, but he said it came from intelligence agencies, adding: “This vaccine is really important for all of us to start our economy spinning again. What he really thought was that whether England developed it first or we first would share it. China will not share it with us. ”