WHO Photo:VCG
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said foreign journalists accusing Chinese media of reporting the "coronavirus initially broke out in many places in the world" shows the Western press harbors a prejudiced attitude against China.
The ministry said that the timeline of the coronavirus pandemic is still moving forward and Chinese media have the right to objectively state the facts.
"Reports have emerged from Australia, Italy and many more [places] that the coronavirus was found in multiple places in the autumn of 2019, and the timeline for the first outbreak is being updated constantly. Aren't these all facts?" said Hua Chunying, spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, at a press conference on Monday.
Hua said that the WHO is investigating the origin of the COVID-19 and China has conducted good cooperation with the WHO in a very open, transparent and candid manner. WHO experts are currently in quarantine in China and will soon conduct a scientific investigation with Chinese experts.
"WHO experts have made a lot of public statements recently, saying that the origin of the virus is science, not politics, that the search for answers is for future security, and that non-scientific purposes do not help scientific research," Hua said.
"As to China's official stance, we believe that origin-tracing is a most serious scientific issue. We must rely on scientists and medical experts to work together based on facts. We hope a clear conclusion will be reached at an early date so that mankind can better deal with similar public health crises in the future," Hua said.
But some western media, including the BBC's reporter who asked the question, are very unfair on issues related to China, Hua said.
"Since the WHO experts to China are still conducting their research, why were there so many conspiracy theories against China? Just over the past couple of days, I saw again that certain anti-China American politicians were hyping up the conspiracy theory of the virus being related to the Wuhan Institute of Virology," Hua said.