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The CIA believes that Chinese authorities tried to prevent the World Health Organization from sounding the global alarm over the coronavirus outbreak in January, a time when Beijing was storing medical supplies from around the world. A CIA report, the content of which was confirmed for the US publication Newsweek by two US intelligence officials, shows that China has threatened the WHO that the country will stop cooperating in the coronavirus investigation if the organization declares the Chinese epidemic as an emergency. global health.
This is the second official report from a Western intelligence service, and is likely to further inflame the relationship between the United States and China in connection with a pandemic that has killed 280,000 people worldwide, more than a quarter of them Americans. . .
The first report, an assessment by the German intelligence services released by Der Spiegel last week, accused Chinese President Xi Jinping of personally putting pressure on WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on January 21.
The WHO rejected the idea that Xi himself intervened, but declined to specifically address the question of whether Chinese officials had made any effort to postpone or change the announcement of an international public health emergency.
US intelligence officials. USA Those who spoke to Newsweek could not say whether President Xi played a role in lobbying the WHO.
When the WHO declared the coronavirus epidemic a public health emergency on January 30, China was said to have done nothing wrong, an approach that sparked some anger in the West and prompted President Donald Trump to criticize the World Organization of the Health. label it “China-focused” before suspending funding in March.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not respond to Newsweek’s requests for comment. The CIA rejected Newsweek’s request for comment.
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