US attempts to push Covid-19 China lab theory undermine plan for independent probe into virus' origin – reports

The push for a comprehensive inquiry into the origin of the novel coronavirus is being hampered by the US narrative that Covid-19 may have stemmed from a lab in China, Australian diplomatic and intelligence sources told Reuters.
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The push for a comprehensive inquiry into the origin of the novel coronavirus is being hampered by the US narrative that Covid-19 may have stemmed from a lab in China, Australian diplomatic and intelligence sources told Reuters.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison wrote to G20 leaders at the end of April, asking them to launch an independent inquiry into the origins of Covid-19.

The country now finds itself between a rock and a hard place, counting both Washington and Beijing among the country's key diplomatic and trade partners. Given these circumstances, the "let's get China" approach puts spanner in the works, according to a government source cited by Reuters.

The report comes on the heels of recent outrage over the probe from Beijing. "The so-called independent inquiry proposed by Australia is in reality political manipulation," China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said on Thursday, urging the Australian government to ditch its "ideological prejudices."

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Morrison has tried to calm things down, providing assurance that calls for an investigation are not a personal attack on China from the Australian side.

"It's not directed at anyone, we just want to know what happened so it doesn't happen again," he said, referring to the focus of the potential investigation.

The Trump administration has pushed the 'lab origin' theory, claiming the virus is man-made and likely originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which holds a range of virus samples. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has gone so far as to claim that he has "enormous evidence" to back up this allegation.

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China subsequently published an editorial dismissing Pompeo's claims as "groundless accusations." It demanded to see the alleged evidence, accusing Pompeo of "bluffing" if he failed to produce it.

However, no concrete evidence has been made public that would link the outbreak to the lab in Wuhan. The WHO concluded at the end of April that it is "not possible to determine" the exact origin of the virus but all available evidence suggests it did not originate in a lab. 

On Wednesday, Pompeo himself said that there was no absolute certainty about the origin of the deadly virus. Not backtracking completely, the Secretary of State still claimed that he had seen "evidence" linking the outbreak to the lab.

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