Pompeo repeats Chinese lab created coronavirus theory, but we may have to wait a long time for proof
6 May, 2020
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said Washington has “significant evidence” that the coronavirus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China. However, don’t expect to see proof any time soon.
Speaking at the State Department in Washington on Wednesday, Pompeo opened up his press conference with a broadside against Beijing. He repeated the accusations against the Chinese government of “covering up” the initial coronavirus outbreak in December, and of obstructing Western efforts to investigate the virus’ origin.
Though American and international intelligence agencies have not supported the theory that the virus originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology – a lab that had been studying bat-borne coronaviruses in the years preceding the outbreak – Pompeo and his boss, President Donald Trump, have jumped on it. China called Washington’s claims “groundless accusations.”
Read more at www.rt.com
Trump and Pompeo’s “big lie”
4 May 2020
In a modern-day version of the “big lie,” the Trump administration is claiming that the COVID-19 pandemic is the product of the deliberate actions of the Chinese government.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump, in a “town hall” with Fox News, accused China of taking actions specifically intended to infect millions of Europeans and Americans.
After repeating the false claim that the novel coronavirus originated in a research laboratory in Wuhan, which he said China tried to cover up, Trump declared: “They didn’t stop people going into the USA and all over the world… They said, hey look, this is going to have a huge impact on China, and we might as well let the rest of the world” become infected.
Read more at https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/05/04/pers-m04.html
WHO says it has no evidence to support ‘speculative’ Covid-19 lab theory
5 May 2020
The World Health Organization says the United States government has not given any evidence to support Trump administration officials’ “speculative” claim that Covid-19 originated in a Wuhan lab, as China dismissed the theory as “insane”.
Donald Trump has repeatedly said that he has proof the virus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan – whereas scientists believe it jumped from animals to humans at a wet market in the city last year.
The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said on Sunday that the US had “enormous evidence” to back the theory. But the administration had not produced it publicly or provided it to the WHO, said its emergencies director, Dr Michael Ryan. “So from our perspective, this remains speculative.
Read more at https://www.theguardian.coml
‘Turbocharging’ exodus: US beats trade war drums to remove supply chains out of China
4 May, 2020
The US wants to сut industrial and supply dependence on China amid rising tensions between the two powers. However, not everyone is eager to pack their bags and leave the lucrative Chinese market in the midst of the previous row.
The Trump administration has long been pushing American firms to get back to US soil, especially when trade tensions were flaring between the two biggest global economies. Now the US has revived the trade war rhetoric again.
“We’ve been working on [reducing the reliance of our supply chains in China] over the last few years but we are now turbo-charging that initiative,” Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment at the US State Department Keith Krach told Reuters.
Read more at https://www.rt.com/business/487703-china-us-supply-chains/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Email
Fauci dismisses coronavirus lab origin claims as ‘circular argument’
5 May, 2020
Anthony Fauci, the leading US expert on the coronavirus pandemic , pushed back on Tuesday against discussions that a lab in China was the origin of the virus, a theory promoted by US President Donald Trump’s administration.
In an interview with National Geographic, Fauci, a member of Trump’s White House coronavirus task force, said the virus likely originated from an animal source. He described the possibility that the virus had accidentally escaped from a lab as a “circular argument”.
“If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what’s out there now, [the scientific evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated – the way the mutations have naturally evolved,” he said.
Read more at www.scmp.com
US Bombers Conduct Sorties Over South China Sea
May 3, 2020
US Indo-Pacific Command has reported US bomber overflights into the South China Sea, a 32-hour operation flying B-1B Lancers over contested areas which the US opposes Chinese claims to. They say the overflights are meant to assure allies.
Recently, most US military action in South China Sea has been from the Navy, where warships sail near Chinese-claimed islands mostly to try to provoke a Chinese reaction. The planes, however, seem to be part of a general escalation, after a similar operation of US warplanes near Japan last week.
Read more at https://news.antiwar.com/2020/05/03/us-bombers-conduct-sorties-over-south-china-sea/
‘Direct threat to peace’: China raises alarm as US Space Force receives first funding
23 Dec, 2019
China has condemned the inauguration of the newest branch of the US military, the Space Force, describing its creation as a threat to peace that endangers global stability.
Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters on Monday that Beijing was “deeply concerned” and “resolutely opposed” to the Space Force, which received its first funding after US President Donald Trump signed the annual military budget last week.
The Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said Washington’s new military branch sets a dangerous precedent for the militarization of outer space.
Read more at https://www.rt.com/news/476656-china-us-space-force-threat/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Email
