New Delhi: China on Wednesday credited its socialist political system for quickly bringing the coronavirus outbreak under control, ahead of its annual Parliament session from Thursday.
Beijing, which came under pressure at the just-concluded World Health Assembly (WHA) session for a probe into the origins of the coronavirus, welcomed the unanimous resolution passed by the world body, calling for an independent “comprehensive evaluation” of the international response to the COVID-virus.
China claimed the majority of the countries believe the focus should be on the containment of the pandemic, rather than investigating the origin of the virus.
During a media interaction, Spokesperson of advisory body Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Guo Weimin said China brought the COVID-19 pandemic under control in a short period.
China’s annual Parliament, comprising the CPPCC and the National People’s Congress (NPC), was put off in March this year due to the virus outbreak. A truncated programme will held from Thursday for a week.
During the session, over 6,000 deputies would attend the sessions.
The NPC, often described as the rubber stamp Parliament with over 3,000 members, would pass a host of new legislations, including approval of Premier Li Keqiang’s annual work report and the annual defence budget.
The meetings are being held under unprecedented restrictions with media personnel needed to undergo COVID-19 tests, wait for six hours for results after which they would be permitted to cover the proceedings from a press room through a video link.
Guo said by curbing the coronavirus in a short time China has effectively safeguarded people’s lives and health, made solid progress in resuming work and production, and accelerated the restoration of normal social life and production.
Such achievements have showcased the country’s institutional advantages of socialism with Chinese characteristics and demonstrated the excellent qualities of perseverance and solidarity of the Chinese nation, Guo said.
Referring to US President Donald Trump’s criticism of Chinese politicians, he said the US and other countries will not succeed in blaming and smearing China over the COVID-19.
Separately, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian welcomed the WHA’s COVID-19 resolution, which was adopted by more than 130 countries, including the European Union, India and Russia.
Concerning the source of the virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) has restricted the scope of traceability research to finding animal sources, intermediate hosts and routes of transmission for better response to future outbreaks, Zhao said.
Beijing appeared to be at ease with the resolution as it makes no reference to the controversial Wuhan Institute of Virology, which Trump has alleged could be a possible origin of the coronavirus. Zhao said the resolution is in line with China’s position to strengthen cooperation in the areas of research on diagnosis and treatment methods, drugs and vaccines, and the zoonotic source of the virus to assess the epidemic situation based on facts.
He said Director General of WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, whom Trump termed as “puppet of China”, will conduct a global outbreak assessment in consultation with member states, draw on the experience and make recommendations for future work, and conduct an independent and comprehensive assessment of the outbreak.
A few countries cannot monopolise the assessment, he said. China will resolutely reject individual countries’ attempts to politicise the virus-origin, Zhao said.
China urged individual countries not to fabricate lies to make excuses for their own failures amid the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
