OUR CORRESPONDENT BEIJING China has dismissed as ‘sensational hearsay’ suggestion by certain Western individuals and media outlets that novel coronavirus may have originated from China’s biological warfare programme and it is a ‘bio-weapon’ leaked from a lab. “Chinese people are fighting an all-out war against COVID-19 not just for its own sake, but also for global public health security. At this particular time, it is either with malicious intentions or absurd ignorance that certain individuals and media outlets are spreading such sensational hearsay,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang said during the weekly briefing on Friday. The World Health Organisation has also said repeatedly there is no evidence that COVID-19 was engineered in a laboratory or created by the manufacture of biological weapons. More than 2,200 people have died in the outbreak originated from China last month. The WHO has warned nations could face a serious problem if they fail to “hit hard now” against the virus, which has infected more than 75,000 in China and over 1,100 abroad. Chinese authorities have placed tens of millions of people under quarantine in hard-hit central Hubei province and restricted movements in other cities far from the epicentre. Many nations have banned travellers from China and airlines have suspended flights to and from the country. “Besides the war on virus, we’re also battling conspiracy theories. Many of the world’s leading medical experts also believe that such allegations as ‘laboratory leakage’ or ‘biological weapons development’ have no scientific basis whatsoever,” Shuang asserted. T h e spokesman further said that the newly-appointed ROK Consul-General to Wuhan Mr. Kang Seung-seok arrived in the early hours on Friday aboard a chartered plane carrying donated medical supplies from his country. “We welcome Mr. Kang and will do everything we can to facilitate his work,” he said. As the fight against the epidemic in China enters a crucial stage, the ROK arrangement showcases the great importance it attaches to bilateral relations and its support for China. Domestic media says that CG Kang is a contrarian. I think this is quite fitting. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, President Moon Jae-in and other ROK politicians have said that as close neighbours, we should help and support each other in times of difficulty. The ROK will spare no efforts in assisting and coordinating with China to counter this challenge.
