China lambasts Mike Pompeo, calls his theory of virus origin 'insane'

The controversy over the origin of the novel coronavirus has escalated the tension between China and the United States as Chinese state broadcaster launched a scathing attack on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for his latest comment. During a television interview on May 3, the top US diplomat had said that there is “significant amount” of evidence that the virus originated from a laboratory in Wuhan.

Calling Pompeo’s remarks “insane and evasive”, the state broadcaster hosted a show titled “Evil Pompeo is wantonly spewing poison and spreading lies”. The commentary cited WHO executive director Mike Ryan and Columbia University virologist W. Ian Lipkin to emphasise that the deadly virus is of natural origin and not man-made.

“These flawed and unreasonable remarks by American politicians make it clear to more and more people that no 'evidence' exists,” the commentary said.

Trump administration under fire

US President Donald Trump has been under fire for his handling of coronavirus which has claimed over 68,000 lives in America alone. Chinese state media said that the US politicians are trying to shift the blame on China for the mess they have created with their domestic anti-Covid efforts.

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Last week, Trump issued a warning that the US could impose new tariffs on China as a retaliatory measure due to coronavirus outbreak that has claimed tens of thousands of lives across the world. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused Beijing of covering the dangerous nature of the disease and not reporting the sustained human-to-human transmission until it was spread in every province of China. 

Read: Pompeo Says, 'Enormous Evidence' COVID Originated In Lab'; Contradicts Himself Later

According to the latest report, nearly 3.6 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed worldwide with over 249,000 deaths, overwhelming the health care facilities across the globe. The United States has become the new epicentre of the pandemic with over 1,191,030 confirmed cases of coronavirus, almost one-third of the cases worldwide. The US, Italy, Spain and the UK are the worst-hit countries due to the pandemic with around 60 per cent of death toll reported from these four countries alone. 

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