China releases white paper on Covid-19 prevention, control and origins tracing

China's State Council Information Office on Wednesday issued a white paper titled "COVID-19 Prevention, Control and Origins Tracing: China's Actions and Stance."

Apart from preface and conclusion, the document contains three chapters: "Contributing Chinese Wisdom to the Study of the Origins of SARS-CoV-2," "China's Contribution to the Global Fight Against COVID-19," and "The Mismanaged Response of the US to the COVID-19 Pandemic."

According to the white paper, since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has consistently dedicated substantial resources to collaborative studies into the origins of the virus, involving both Chinese and international scientists. Upholding its international responsibilities with openness and transparency, the country spearheaded research initiatives in critical fields such as clinical epidemiology, molecular epidemiology, environmental epidemiology, and the identification of animal hosts. China closely cooperated with the WHO on the study of the virus origins with a strong sense of global responsibility and transparency.

The white paper points out that "WHO-convened Global Study of Origins of SARS-CoV-2: China Part-Joint WHO-China Study," as well as other studies, conducted systematic epidemiological investigations, molecular tracing, animal reservoir screening, and studies on cold-chain pathways, ruled out the possibility of Wuhan being the natural origin of SARS-CoV-2, and concluded that a Wuhan lab leak is extremely unlikely. These efforts have provided the global scientific community with critical empirical evidence and established a research paradigm for future studies.

The white paper says the vision of a global community of shared future guided China's broad international cooperation against the pandemic. China shared the epidemic information with the WHO and the international community in a timely manner, and provided the genome sequence of the virus. It also invited WHO international expert missions to the country to conduct joint research into the origins of SARS-CoV-2, shared without reservation its effective measures for prevention, control, diagnosis and treatment, and did all it could to provide massive supplies and extensive aid to the international community.

As pointed out in the white paper, the US government, instead of facing squarely its failure in response to COVID-19 and reflecting on its shortcomings, has tried to shift the blame and divert people's attention by shamelessly politicizing SARS-CoV-2 origins tracing. It has severely undermined joint international efforts in the fight against the pandemic and become a weak link in global public health governance. Substantial evidence suggested the COVID-19 might have emerged in the United States earlier than its officially-claimed timeline, and earlier than the outbreak in China. A thorough and in-depth investigation into the origins of the virus should be conducted in the United States. The United States should respond to the reasonable concern of the international community, and give a responsible answer to the world.

The white paper says infectious diseases are the common enemy of humanity. Any attempt to politicize the scientific effort against infectious diseases, or to fabricate misinformation in order to attack other countries for self-serving purposes, will ultimately threaten the health and wellbeing of the entire world, including the very nation engaged in such practices. China will continue to work with all nations in advancing global public health and good governance, and contribute more proactively to preventing new infectious diseases in the future.