Shivalik
Amid rising allegations of the deadly coronavirus being leaked from a lab in Wuhan, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday said any lawsuits filed against the country over the novel COVID-19 have “zero factual basis in law or international precedence”.
While talking to reporters at a news conference, Wang Yi said that China was a victim of the global pandemic alongside other nations and had even extended help to other governments in need. “To our regret, in addition to the raging of the new coronavirus, a political virus is also spreading in the US which is to take every chance to attack and discredit China,” he said.
“Some US politicians, heedless of basic facts, have fabricated too many lies and plotted too many conspiracies,” Wang said.
Raising such lawsuits “tramples on the international rule of law and abandons the human conscience. It’s untrue, unjustifiable and illegal,” he noted.
Those who would bring such litigation against China are “living in a daydream and will humiliate themselves,” Wang said.
US President Donald Trump and his administration have been increasingly critical of China over its mishandling of the initial outbreak that led it to become a global pandemic. The US has also claimed that the highly infectious virus may not have natural origins at all and was instead created at a lab facility in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
“This political virus uses every opportunity to attack and discredit China. Some politicians have ignored the most basic facts and created too many lies and plotted too many conspiracies against China,” Wang said.
The deadly coronavirus, which first emerged in China last December has infected more than 5 million people worldwide. The global pandemic is having devastating effects on both human life and employment; with millions unemployed, it has pushed many onto the brink of poverty.
