China urges U.S. to invite WHO experts to investigate Fort Detrick lab

BEIJING, July 26 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson on Monday urged the United States to adopt a transparent and responsible attitude and invite World Health Organization (WHO) experts to investigate Fort Detrick lab for coronavirus origin tracing as soon as possible.

The United States must do so to show the truth to the world, spokesperson Zhao Lijian said.

Zhao made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to a question on the increasing amount of rational voices from the media and experts of multiple countries, criticizing the U.S. politicizing the issue of virus origin tracing and urging an investigation of the Fort Detrick bio lab.

Some people in the United States are bent on political manipulation under the pretext of virus origin tracing to divert attention and shift blame for a poor performance in their pandemic response, Zhao said. "Their vicious motives have long been laid bare."

He said the United States is the country with the most COVID-19 infections, the timeline of infection cases at the early stage in the United States is being advanced, and the correlation between Fort Detrick and vaping-related illnesses remains puzzling.

"If there are to be investigations on laboratories, the WHO should go to the Fort Detrick," said Zhao.

Concerning the U.S. failure to respond actively to joint signatures by more than 13 million Chinese netizens calling for a WHO investigation of Fort Detrick, the spokesperson said the United States owed Chinese netizens responsible explanations about doubts at Fort Detrick and cyberattacks from the United States against the joint signature server.

These attacks have once again exposed U.S. hypocrisy and double standard on cybersecurity, as well as its true identity of the number one "matrix" in the world, Zhao added.