Tensions between Washington and Beijing are rising.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the president and his senior officials were pressuring Beijing to provide more information and allow international investigations to proceed unhindered as part of efforts to determine the origin of the virus.
It is reported by “Yahoo! news”.
Following reports of a new intelligence assessment, the State Department says US President Biden discussed with Chinese President Xi Jinping the need for Beijing to deal with the origins of COVID-19.
“The President has raised this issue, the Secretary of State has raised this issue, the National Security Adviser has raised this issue, it has been raised repeatedly and consistently at different levels because it is very important to us,” Price said.
Persistent questions surrounding the origins of COVID-19 are irritating U.S.-China relations as tensions between Washington and Beijing recently escalated over the discovery of a Chinese spy balloon in late January and Beijing's close ties to Russia amid the war in Ukraine and the risk of conflict related to Taiwan.
Price did not confirm the conclusion of the Department of Energy intelligence, which assessed with “low confidence” that the outbreak of COVID-19 was the result of an accidental leak in the laboratory. This was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
At the same time, Price pointed to the “diversity of views in the intelligence community” supporting two main theories of the origin of the virus: the virus came from a laboratory, in particular, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, or was the result of transmission from an animal to a person. Price added that some intelligence agencies did not receive a response.
“There are some elements in the intelligence community that have reached conclusions on the one hand. There are others who have come to different conclusions. There are a number of intelligence agencies that have put forward an assessment that, in fact, clearly shows that they do not have enough information to draw this or that conclusion, ”he said.
We add that Ukraine benefits from understanding the United States and China. At one time, this led to the beginning of the end of the USSR.
