China is open to an independent investigation to determine the origins of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the world, its ambassador to Berlin has told a German magazine, amid US allegations that it came from a laboratory.
China has dismissed as groundless US and Australian questioning of how it had handled the pandemic, saying it had been open and transparent, despite growing scepticism about the accuracy of its official death toll.
"We are open to an international investigation," Wu Ken told Der Spiegel magazine on Friday in an interview. "We support the exchange of research among scientists.
"But we reject putting China in the dock without evidence, assuming its guilt and then trying to search for evidence through a so-called international investigation."
Australia has called for an international investigation into the origins and spread of the virus which emerged late last year in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo say there is evidence of it coming from a Wuhan laboratory, without saying what the evidence is. A German intelligence report cast doubts on their accusation.
Some 4 million people have been reported to be infected around the world and 275,000 have died.
Responding to Australia's efforts to establish support for an international inquiry, France and Britain have said their focus is fighting the virus, not apportioning blame.
Trump has been fiercely critical of China and the World Health Organization and has withdrawn funding from the UN agency.
Many scientists and politicians say now is the time to increase, not cut, funding to the WHO so it can help to find a vaccine.
The WHO said on Friday that although a Wuhan market selling live animals likely played a significant role in the emergence of coronavirus, it does not recommend that such markets be shut down globally.
In a media briefing, WHO food safety and animal diseases expert Peter Ben Embarek said live animal markets were critical to providing food and livelihoods for millions of people globally. He said authorities should focus on improving them rather than outlawing them - even though they can sometimes spark epidemics in humans.
"Food safety in these environments is rather difficult and, therefore, it's not surprising that sometimes we also have these events happening within markets," Embarek said.
He said reducing the risk of disease transmission from animals to humans in these often overcrowded markets could be addressed in many cases by improving hygiene and food safety standards, including separating live animals from humans.
He added it was still unclear whether the Wuhan market was the source of the virus or merely played a role in spreading the disease further.
In a separate development in Beijing, China will resolutely prevent the rebound of the coronavirus outbreak as the country faces mounting pressure from imported cases, state television reported on Friday, quoting a top level meeting chaired by President Xi Jinping.
China will improve its capability in terms of responding to major public health emergencies, it said.
Reuters
