Covid-19: An independent investigation is good for China

VOICES are increasingly being raised, calling for China to be held accountable for the coronavirus pandemic that is ravaging the world with three-and-a-half million people infected so far and close to a quarter million deaths. Economic losses will amount to trillions of US dollars.

But is China responsible? After all, as China tells it, while the country was the first victim of the coronavirus, it was not its source and not responsible for its spread around the world. China argues that through its effective containment methods, it bought time for the rest of the world to make preparations. But some countries, most notably the United States, frittered the time away for domestic political reasons.

Thus, on March 12, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said: "The origin of the virus can only be determined by science. We need to rely on scientific and professional views. We don't hope to see anyone making an issue out of this to stigmatise other countries. With Covid-19 developing into a pandemic, the world should come together to fight it instead of levelling accusations and attacks against each other, which is not constructive at all."