The pandemonium in coronavirus origins-tracing led by the U.S. intelligence community has culminated in a somewhat subdued ending. On October 29,

the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released "a declassified assessment on the origins of COVID-19," said to be an update of its previous report issued in August. Nevertheless, the content proved basically the same as that of its predecessor, determining that "the inquiry remains inconclusive on the origins of COVID-19," while pointing the finger at China for not "sharing information."

The irony here is that the job of a special agent is to uncover every detail of important information a country, in this case China, might be "hiding." And make no mistake, the U.S. boasts the finest assets and broadest network in the worldwide realm of "secret services." So the recent "declassified assessment" is either a testimony to or complete failure of the U.S. intelligence community—or just concrete proof that China really has nothing to hide.

Wang Wenbin, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, commented, "A lie repeated a thousand times is still a lie. No matter how many times the report is published or how many versions it comes in, this will not change the fact that it is, in essence, a politically motivated and false one, with no scientific basis or real credibility."

More than five months ago, when Avril Haines, U.S. Director of National Intelligence, received the direct order from President Joe Biden to investigate the origins of COVID-19, she must have known this inquiry would prove a mission impossible as the previous Donald Trump administration had relentlessly sought to do so, but failed.

During the 2020 presidential campaign, when the Trump administration promoted the "lab leak" theory, this received fierce criticism from the Democratic front, which accused Trump of shifting the blame. Yet when Biden took office, the Democrats did not hesitate to revert to the same trick.

Sadly, China is an easy target. By implying China has something to hide, the U.S. is paving the way for more scapegoating and blame-shifting. The use of intelligence agencies to trace the source of the virus is a piece of iron-clad proof of politicization. What's more, the U.S. intelligence agencies bear a rather deplorable track record. Whether it's about a vial of white powder to serve as evidence of Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction, or concerns a self-directed video of a chemical weapons attack carried out by Syrian government forces, these instances of deliberate deception have long put a notorious stamp on the American intelligence

community.

The bouts of palpable political manipulation not only spark very little international enthusiasm, but also cannot deceive national citizens. According to the latest U.S. polls on

October 23, Biden's support rates had dropped from 56 percent in July to 44.7 percent; the failure to adeptly manage the COVID-19 pandemic was one of the most important reasons for the noticeable decline.

The origins-tracing of the novel coronavirus is a serious and complex scientific issue, which is crucial for mankind to understand the path of viral transmission and eventually find a way to defeat it. This type of work can only be undertaken by scientists—through international cooperation.

China has always been an active promoter of international virus origins tracing. At the very onset of the pandemic, China took the lead in carrying out global traceability cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO), and twice invited WHO experts to the country to carry out traceability research. The experts traveled to all the places they wanted to visit, met all the people they wanted to meet, and consulted all the data they wanted to consult. The report of the joint WHO-China study on the origins of COVID-19 reached the clear conclusion that a laboratory incident was "extremely unlikely."

The U.S. should shift from indulging in the blame game to focusing instead on domestic efforts and global cooperation in the fight against COVID-19, respond to the legitimate concerns of the international community and welcome into its borders and biological experiment bases the WHO experts.

For the U.S., the time has now come to put an end to the madness of its mission

impossible. BR

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon

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