The Biden administration was certainly trampled upon by their Chinese counterparts in Alaska. Berated and torn apart, the representation from the US had nothing to offer as they accepted defeat. But after the humbling at the hands of the Chinese representatives, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is trying to level some charges over the coronavirus pandemic on China, but it is a case of too little too late as the paper dragon is still revelling in its diplomatic victory in Alaska tore into Blinken’s claims.
In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Blinken expressed concern about the forthcoming WHO report on the origin of the coronavirus’s “methodology and mechanism.”
“There is a report coming out shortly by the World Health Organisation. There are real concerns about the methodology and the process that went into that report including that fact that the government in Beijing has helped to write it. But let us see what comes out of that report,” Blinken said.
During the interview, host Dana Bash pressed Blinken whether China needs to be held accountable. Blinken said that there must be “accountability,” but did not specify what steps must be taken. Instead, the country’s top diplomat emphasised the importance of “building a better infrastructure for the future” to prevent impending outbreaks.
Speaking on a show called “State of the Union,” Blinken said, “I think the issue for us is to make sure that we do everything possible to prevent another pandemic, even as we’re working through this one, or at the very least to make sure that we can mitigate in much more effective ways any damage done if something happens in the future. And a big part of that is making sure that we have a system in place, including with the World Health Organization, that features transparency, that features information-sharing, and features access for international experts at the start of something like this.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian when asked for his reaction to Blinken’s comments, told a media briefing that, “China will never accept the groundless accusations and smearing on the epidemic related issues.”
“The US has been making remarks on this. Is it doing so to try to impose pressure on the WHO expert group, I would like to ask which part of the report is written by the Chinese government,” he said.
Earlier, during an interview with the NBC, Blinken had said, “There’s no doubt that especially when Covid-19 first hit, but even today, China is falling far short of the mark when it comes to providing the information necessary to the international community, making sure that experts have access to China. All of that lack of transparency, that lack of being forthcoming, is a profound problem.”
In January of this year, China authorised a WHO team to visit Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first identified by Chinese health officials in December of 2019. The visit came after the delegation was reported of being denied visas by China for an extremely long time.
The team of experts was chastised for relying heavily on data and reports issued by Chinese health experts. The visit of the experts’ team is defined by China as a joint study to track down the virus’s origins rather than an investigation.
Zhao said, “in terms of origin tracing the China-WHO joint mission visited nine institutions in Wuhan including the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIT).”
The former US administration under President Donald Trump had repeatedly taken a stand against China and united countries against China’s belligerence. But Biden’s softer approach has let them down and the United States was humiliated by Chinese diplomats at the meeting in Alaska. Blinken’s efforts to level some allegations on China is futile. China has already taken the victory and is revelling in its light and the US needs to deliver a major blow if it wishes to bring itself on level terms to China.