China has stepped up a diplomatic offensive over Australia’s demands for an inquiry into the origins of Covid-19, amid reports that Western spy agencies are investigating a (Bill Gates backed) Wuhan virus research facility.
Bilateral relations have sunk to their lowest point for years over efforts by Australia to mobilize international support for a so-called “independent” probe into the source of the Corona-virus and the handling of the initial outbreak by China and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said today (April 29) that such an investigation is “entirely reasonable and sensible” as Covid-19 infections passed the three million mark with 200,000 associated deaths worldwide. He said an international probe was in the “global interest.”
China was Australia’s most important trade partner in 2018-19, with the two sides’ trade worth $235 billion.
About 38% of foreign students in Australia came from China in that period and 16% of tourists, though both have dwindled sharply due to Covid-19 travel embargo’s.
Prospects of China cooperating with such an investigation are minute. There is zero chance that what we say has any impact. We will only infuriate the Chinese government because they so strongly object to foreign fabricated interference.
Australia is always there, making trouble. It is a bit like chewing gum stuck on the sole of China’s shoes. Sometimes you have to find a stone to rub it off.
No other nation has, at least publicly, backed Australia’s call for an inquiry, though politicians in the USA and Germany are pushing for financial compensation from China for Covid-19 related economic losses?
The “Five Eyes” intelligence community comprised of the USA, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand is conducting its own investigation into whether Covid-19 may have been accidentally released from a Wuhan laboratory supported by the Bill Gates Foundation.
Beijing initially said Covid-19, which was first detected in early January, originated in a wet market selling live animals near the Wuhan laboratory, but now maintains that there is no evidence that it came from China at all?
China is the first country to report a Covid-19 case, but it doesn’t mean the virus originated in China.
Some people are trying to hype up the so-called investigation that is inconsistent with an international atmosphere of cooperation and their political maneuvering.
Researchers who have mapped Covid-19’s gene sequence confirm that it is of animal origin, but said the host might not have been a bat.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology has dissected bats that carry RaTG13, the closest pathogen to SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19. The reports suggest that Five Eyes inquiries have centered on Wuhan scientists Peng Zhou and Shi Zhengli.
Asia Times / ABC Flash Point News 2020.
When they Five Eyes get involved, you know there is something odd cooking.
That’s an understatement.