Beijing, August 25th—A briefing on COVID-19 origin-tracing was held here today by the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) via videolink, with the participation of leaders of 28 political parties and organizations from 13 Arab states.

Zhu Rui, Assistant Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, said at the briefing that recently the United States and some other countries have frequently used the issue of COVID-19 origin-tracing to distort facts, deliberately hyping up platitudes such as lab leak with the presumption of guilt to smear and contain China. The Chinese side is firmly opposed to and strongly dissatisfied with that. The Chinese side has all along supported and will continue to take part in science-based origin-tracing efforts, but firmly rejects political manipulation. The issue of origin-tracing is critical to global governance and international order. The Chinese side will work with Arab states and all other countries that uphold justice to oppose politicizing, stigmatizing or labeling the origin-tracing, and jointly safeguard international fairness and justice. China will continue to strengthen anti-pandemic cooperation with other countries in the world, including Arab countries, and contribute to humanity’s final victory over the COVID-19.

The Arab side shared the view that the origin-tracing of the virus must be based on science. The US politicized the COVID-19 pandemic, stigmatized the virus and manipulated the origin-tracing to shift the blame for its disastrous anti-pandemic measures for the political purpose of smearing and suppressing other countries, which seriously undermined science-based origin-tracing and the global fight against the pandemic. Political parties and organizations of the Arab side expressed firm opposition to that and called on the US to abandon its erroneous words and actions and shoulder its responsibilities in its own and global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Chinese side has taken immediate actions to share its experience with the international community including Arab countries, provide anti-COVID assistance to the best of its ability, and take the lead in conducting the largest scale global vaccine cooperation, thus making contributions to Arab countries’ fight against the pandemic. The Arab side firmly supports China’s scientific claim on the origin-tracing of COVID-19 and hopes that the Chinese side will continue to provide anti-pandemic support for the Arab side to help it win the battle against the COVID-19.

Participants of the Arab side took a joint interview with Xinhua News Agency, China Media Group and other media outlets.

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