China to Answer Questions Over Outbreak, Says UK Minister

China is facing added international pressure from the UK to answer questions regarding the information it provided about the Coronavirus outbreak. But the UK said the priority now was to beat the pandemic.

On Monday, the UK’s defence minister said China needed to explain how fast it made the world aware of the extent of the virus.

However, the defence minister said the time for a post-mortem on the pandemic would come after we all got everything under control, came out of it, and economies back to normal.

Ben Wallace the UK’s Defence Minister told LBC Radio that the only way to learn about it is by being transparent. China needs to be transparent about its lessons, shortcomings, and successes.

Ben’s comments followed a barrage of US criticism against China regarding how it handles the coronavirus outbreak. The US accused China of not being transparent when it came to informing the world.

China’s lab “mistake” caused the pandemic.

US President Donald Trump has consistently blamed China. On Sunday, he repeated the accusation saying he believed that China’s “mistake” caused the pandemic. However, he did not provide any evidence of the claim.

Ï think they made a horrible mistake. They don’t want to admit it” Trump spoke during a Fox News virtual town hall.

On Sunday, Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State, also shared that evidence exists that the disease emerged from a Chinese lab.

His statement comes after the top US spy agency had determined that the virus was not human-made. But was still investigating whether it resulted from an accident in the lab in Wuhan.

China Denies Claims

However, China has vehemently denied claims that the virus escaped from a research center in Wuhan.

This weekend, an Australian newspaper report claimed that the US-led Five Eyes intelligence alliance had said in a dossier that China had deliberately suppressed evidence of the coronavirus outbreak. It’s an assault on international transparency that has cost tens of thousands of lives.

The Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance comprises Britain, Canadian, New Zealand, and Australian intelligence services.

However, CNBC said they had not seen the Five Eyes dossier and couldn’t independently verify the report.

The UK defence minister could also not comment on the integrity of the report.

Wallace insisted he got intelligence bulletins from their agencies around the world. But didn’t comment on what he has and hasn’t seen. He said that would be wrong.

China has repeatedly denied covering up the details about the outbreak. It says that it is a ploy by the US to divert attention from its response to the pandemic.

On Tuesday, Chinese Vice Premier – Le Yucheng told NBC that China had been open, transparent, and responsible in its Covid-19 response.

He said they did not cover up anything. Moreover, they did not delay any efforts. They had publicized timelines on how they shared information on Covid-19.

Global cases of coronavirus infections continue to rise and are now topping 3.5 million, with over 247,000 deaths globally.

While infections and fatalities continue to decline in the US and Europe, cases in Africa and Latin America are increasing, Reuters said on Monday.