After Donald Trump, France's Emmanuel Macron Suspects Secrecy in China's Handling of Coronavirus
"Things happened that we don't know about," said Macron on being asked about China's response to coronavirus. His remarks, incidentally, came shortly after UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also voiced a similar concern on Beijing's cooperation with the West in fight against the pandemic.
Paris, April 16: French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday raised suspicion on whether China was transperant in sharing information related to coronavirus during early stages of the disease outbreak. In his press briefing, Macron replied in the affirmative on being asked whether he doubts Beijing's claim of being transparent in its handling of the COVID-19 disease. China May Have Conducted Nuclear Tests, Says US State Department Report.
"Things happened that we don't know about," said Macron on being asked about China's response to coronavirus. His remarks, incidentally, came shortly after UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also voiced a similar concern on Beijing's cooperation with the West in fight against the pandemic.
While underscoring that the UK continues to share smooth relations with China, Raab said the future in their ties would not be "business as usual". He also called for a deep review of how the pandemic erupted, including an analysis "driven by science on the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan.
"We will have to ask the hard questions about how it came about and how it couldn't have been stopped earlier," said the Foreign Secretary, who is heading the nation till Prime Minister Boris Johnson recovers from coronavirus.
The remarks by Raab and Macron came in backdrop of Trump's scathing criticism of China. From terming COVID-19 a "Chinese virus" to calling for a global investigation into the outbreak, the American President has been cornering Beijing ever since the unprecedented spurt of cases in Europe and the US.
"We are doing a very thorough examination of this horrible situation that happened," Trump said on Wednesday, on being asked whether the US is investigating whether coronavirus was born in a lab in China.
According to a Fox News report, the virus was developed in a lab in Wuhan and it accidentally infected one of lab workers, who in turn visited the wet market and infected around 20 more persons.
China, however, has maintained that the SARS nCoV-19 virus has evolved from the SARS virus which had claimed around 1,000 lives in China-Hong Kong region in 2002-03. The new virus was spread through pangolin, which was sold at the live animal market in Wuhan city in mid-December. The pandemic, by the time this report was published, had infected 2,146,291 persons and claimed 144,104 lives.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 17, 2020 12:13 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).