China reiterated its opposition on Wednesday to political manipulation of novel coronavirus origin tracing, condemning the United States for smearing China again with baseless accusations.

A National Health Commission spokesperson made the remarks in response to an article on tracing COVID-19 origins published on the White House website, which alleged that the novel coronavirus originated from a "lab leak" in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province.

Similar to the previous unfounded US allegations, the so-called rationale of the article completely lacks a scientific basis and the so-called "evidence" is entirely fabricated, the spokesperson said.

The US has repeatedly tried to shift blame and smear China over the origin of the novel coronavirus, fully exposing the sinister face of politicizing scientific issues. This approach has been derided by the scientific community, and the conspiracy to contain China through this approach will not succeed, the spokesperson added.

The spokesperson said that currently, an increasing number of clues and evidence point to the novel coronavirus appearing earlier in the US, indicating that future tracing efforts should be carried out in the US.

The spokesperson urged the US to immediately cease smearing and attacking China, face its own issues, and offer a sincere and accountable explanation to the people of the world and the international community.

At a daily news conference on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun also emphasized that virus origin tracing is a serious scientific matter, criticizing the US for rehashing the "lab leak" theory as "another ploy of political manipulation under the guise of novel coronavirus origin tracing".

"China has actively supported and participated in global, science-based investigations into the origins of the novel coronavirus in the spirit of science, openness and transparency," Guo added.

"The US needs to stop politicizing and weaponizing origin-tracing at once, and stop scapegoating others. It should stop playing deaf to the questions concerning its role in the pandemic," he said, adding that the US still owes the international community a serious response to those legitimate concerns.

limenghan@chinadaily.com.cn

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