China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Sunday that the US and China are “on the brink of a new Cold War.” The nation’s top diplomat warned of a “political virus” that has infected Washington and is pushing US politicians to attack Beijing, criticism that is mostly related to the Covid-19 pandemic, although Taiwan and Hong Kong have become major talking points lately.
Wang also criticized US politicians’ efforts to “fabricate rumors” into the origin of Covid-19 and said China is “open” to working with the international scientific community to investigate the source of the virus. The investigation, Wang said, must be fair and free of “political interference.”
President Trump, and many other US politicians, have accused Beijing of a cover-up in the early days of the outbreak and pushed the theory that the virus leaked out of a Chinese maximum-security laboratory in Wuhan.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Wang’s counterpart, has increased his anti-China rhetoric in the wake of the pandemic. Last week, Pompeo slammed China, calling the Asian country “hostile to free nations.” Earlier in May, Pompeo claimed there was “enormous evidence” the virus leaked out the lab in Wuhan, a claim he’s since backed away from.
