China calls on India, Pakistan to exercise restraint, properly resolve differences through dialogue and consultation: FM spokesperson

China has called on India and Pakistan to exercise restraint, resolve differences through dialogue and consultation and jointly uphold regional peace and stability, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Tuesday, following reports that Indian and Pakistani troops engaged in another cross-border exchange of fire on Monday night.

Following the terrorist attack in Kashmir last week, Indian and Pakistani troops exchanged cross-border fire again on Monday night. AFP reported, citing an Indian army statement, small arms fire occurred across the Line of Control during the night of Sunday and Monday.

Commenting on the latest development, Guo stated at a press conference that India and Pakistan are both important countries in South Asia, and that their peaceful coexistence is crucial for regional peace, stability and development. 

"As a common neighbor to both nations, China urges the two sides to exercise restraint, resolve differences through dialogue and consultation and jointly maintain regional peace and stability," Guo said.

The terrorist attack in India-administered Kashmir last week, which killed at least 26 tourists, has escalated tensions between India and Pakistan. 

After the attack, New Delhi downgraded diplomatic ties, revoked visas for Pakistani nationals, suspended a water-sharing treaty and announced the closure of its main land border crossing with Pakistan, AFP reported.

In response, Islamabad ordered the expulsion of Indian diplomats and military advisers, cancelled visas for Indian nationals and barred its airspace to Indian airplanes.

The UN has urged the two sides to show "maximum restraint" so that issues can be "resolved peacefully through meaningful mutual engagement," according to AFP.

Full text: Covid-19 Prevention, Control and Origins Tracing: China's Actions and Stance

Covid-19 Prevention, Control and Origins Tracing: China's Actions and Stance

The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China April 2025

First Edition 2025

ISBN 978-7-119-14315-6

© Foreign Languages Press Co. Ltd, Beijing, China, 2025

Published by Foreign Languages Press Co. Ltd

24 Baiwanzhuang Road, Beijing 100037, China

Distributed by China International Book Trading Corporation

35 Chegongzhuang Xilu, Beijing 100044, China

P.O. Box 399, Beijing, China

Printed in the People's Republic of China

Contents

Preface

I. Contributing Chinese Wisdom to the Study of the Origins of

SARS-CoV-2

II. China's Contribution to the Global Fight Against Covid-19

III. The Mismanaged Response of the US to the Covid-19 Pandemic

Conclusion

Preface

The Covid-19 pandemic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) stands as the fastest-spreading and most extensive global health crisis that humanity has faced in a century. It was also the most challenging public health emergency to contain and manage since the 1918 flu pandemic. From the onset of the pandemic, China prioritized lives and health above all else, and implemented comprehensive, science-based and effective containment measures. With over 1.4 billion people uniting as one and displaying extraordinary tenacity and dedication, a formidable defense line was erected against the virus. This collective effort of the whole nation enabled China to withstand multiple waves of outbreaks and emerge victorious from the crisis - a historic feat for a populous nation like China.

In the face of the challenge, China championed the cause of a global community of shared future and a community of health for all, and demonstrated a commitment to openness, transparency and responsibility at every stage. The country lost no time in sharing, fully and without reservation, epidemic updates, prevention strategies, diagnostic and clinical treatment protocols, and technical expertise, as well as vaccines and protective materials, with the World Health Organization (WHO) and countries worldwide. By contributing its insights, solutions and strengths to the collaborative global fight against the pandemic, it made every effort to provide support to the international community.

As a major country that shoulders its responsibilities, China has always applied a science-based approach to the task of tracing the virus origins, actively engaging with the WHO in communication and cooperation from the start of the outbreak. At the invitation of China, the WHO sent two international expert missions to the country to carry out a joint study into the origins of the virus. These missions were staffed by authoritative experts across relevant disciplines who conducted site visits, interviews, and extensive data collection and analysis with the utmost dedication, diligence and professionalism. Their findings were compiled into a joint study report that was released globally. With its rigorous and scientifically sound conclusions, the report earned endorsements from both the international community and the scientific community.

The Chinese government is releasing this white paper to present a systematic overview of China's key achievements in tracing the origins of SARS-CoV-2, to attest to its contribution to international cooperation in the response to the global pandemic, to advance scientific endeavors and foster global collaboration in this critical domain, and to expose the mismanaged pandemic response in the United States.

I. Contributing Chinese Wisdom to the Study of the Origins of SARS-CoV-2

  1. China's Efforts in Tracing the Origins of the Virus

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, China has consistently dedicated substantial resources to collaborative studies into the origins of the virus, involving both Chinese and international scientists. Upholding its international responsibilities with openness and transparency, the country spearheaded research initiatives in critical fields such as clinical epidemiology, molecular epidemiology, environmental epidemiology, and the identification of animal hosts. Demonstrating a strong sense of global responsibility, China closely collaborated with the WHO on the study of the virus origins, and in 2020 and 2021, invited WHO expert missions to China to carry out a joint study into this field.

In July and August 2020, Chinese experts held preparatory consultations with their WHO counterparts concerning cooperation in scientific research on virus origins tracing in China, and together outlined the "WHO-convened Global Study of Origins of SARS-CoV-2: China Part - Terms of Reference". From October to December 2020, Chinese scientists held four virtual meetings with a WHO-assembled team of international experts to share updates on global SARS-CoV-2 origins research and to align methodologies for the joint study.

In January and February 2021, a 28-day joint study was conducted in Wuhan, China, by a team of 17 Chinese experts and 17 international experts from the WHO, the World Organisation for Animal Health (Office International des Epizooties) and several countries. On February 9, the joint team held a press conference to announce key findings from their study.

On March 30, 2021, the WHO organized a member state information session and press conference to present the findings about the origins of the virus and published the "WHO-convened Global Study of Origins of SARS-CoV-2: China Part - Joint WHO-China Study" on its website.

From 2021 onward, the WHO started to build a Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO). Meanwhile, China has allocated resources to advance comprehensive and in-depth research and analysis in epidemiology, molecular epidemiology, animal and environmental studies, and laboratory audit, as outlined in Phase 2 of the "Joint WHO-China Study". Chinese scientists have shared progress and findings with the international scientific community and other professionals through reports to the WHO and SAGO or papers published on Chinese and international academic journals.

To date, no findings have contradicted the conclusions of the "Joint WHO-China Study". It is fair to say that the study on the origins of SARS-CoV-2 conducted in China has ended.

The WHO-convened global study of origins of SARS-CoV-2: China part has produced extensive research results. Its methodology and scientific findings have laid the foundations and provided guidance for similar efforts in other countries.

Tracing the origins of SARS-CoV-2 is a scientific endeavor that must not be politicized or exploited as a means of stigmatization by any country. The global community should encourage research institutions and professionals of all countries to share evidence and conduct systematic studies. Above all, pandemic prevention should be a priority, as similar outbreaks in the future could pose another catastrophic threat to human health and security.

  1. China's Open and Transparent Updates on Its Findings Regarding the Origins of the Virus

In 2020, a study on the time to the most recent common ancestor of SARS-CoV-2, conducted by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and collaborating teams, indicated that the outbreak in Wuhan likely occurred between mid-November and early December 2019. This timeline aligns closely with the onset date of the first reported Covid-19 case - December 8 of that year.

After the joint WHO-China study concluded in 2021, Chinese scientists made another spatiotemporal distribution analysis of 76,000 screening records from medical institutions and 174 early confirmed cases. The analysis revealed no evidence of unusual clusters of respiratory illnesses in Wuhan between October and early December 2019.

In a 2022 serological and epidemiological study, Chinese scientists detected no specific antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in 43,850 blood donation samples collected in Wuhan between September 1 and December 31, 2019. These findings provided evidence that the virus was not present in Wuhan prior to December 2019.

A number of research teams in China conducted systematic testing on more than 80,000 samples collected from bats, pangolins, wild birds, wild boars, raccoon dogs, and other wildlife, as well as livestock and poultry across the country. Sample collection spanned from 2017 to 2021, and the analyses detected no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 circulation in these animal populations. Additionally, in early 2020, scientists from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences screened bat species in Wuhan and its surrounding areas and found no virus genetically related to SARS-CoV-2. These findings effectively ruled out the possibility that this virus originated from local wildlife in the Wuhan vicinity.

In 2023, a paper published by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed that all 457 animal samples collected from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in the early stage of the epidemic tested negative for SARS-CoV-2, while 74 out of 923 environmental samples from the market were positive. Genomic sequencing of three isolated viral strains revealed 99.9-100 percent genetic identity with early Covid-19 cases, indicating that viral shedding by infected individuals was the likely source of contamination in the market environment.

Source tracing of outbreaks in clusters in locations other than Wuhan between 2020 and 2022 revealed the likelihood of introduction from overseas through cold-chain transportation. In June and July 2020, new outbreaks emerged in Beijing's Xinfadi Agricultural Products Wholesale Market and Dalian, Liaoning Province. It is worth noting that prior to these outbreaks, no new cases had been confirmed in Beijing and Dalian for 56 and 111 consecutive days, respectively. In addition, Beijing's early cases were primarily concentrated among stallholders from the aquatic products section in Xinfadi market, while those in Dalian involved aquatic product processing workers in a seafood company. Several tracing investigations indicated that the virus originated from other countries and regions and subsequently entered China via cold-chain transportation.

On September 24, 2020, two stevedores in Qingdao, Shandong Province were diagnosed with Covid-19. The two cases had no travel history or contact with other confirmed cases. The only epidemiological link was their involvement in handling the same batch of imported frozen food products on September 19, 2020. Several samples from the outer packaging of the frozen food products tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acids. Whole genome sequencing confirmed that the virus detected on the packaging was the source of infection for the two cases, and viable virus from the packaging was successfully isolated and cultured. This marked the world's first successful isolation of viable SARS-CoV-2 from cold-chain food packaging, demonstrating cold-chain transportation as a transmission pathway for SARS-CoV-2.

Given that the early confirmed cases in Wuhan were concentrated in the aquatic products section of Huanan market, there is a possibility that the outbreak in the market at the end of 2019 was introduced to China from abroad via cold-chain transportation.

These findings were published in the "Joint WHO-China Study" and international journals including The Lancet, Nature, Cell, National Science Review, Scientific Reports, and Virus Evolution. With solid laboratory data supporting the likelihood of four possible introduction pathways, the study concluded:

•Direct zoonotic spillover is considered to be a possible-to-likely pathway;

•Introduction through an intermediate host is considered to be a likely to very likely pathway;

•Introduction through cold/food chain products is considered a possible pathway;

•Introduction through a laboratory incident was considered to be an extremely unlikely pathway.

China's fully open and collaborative stance demonstrates its commitment to scientific principles and integrity, and its responsibility for building a community of health for all.

China has actively participated in global virus origins-tracing efforts with the greatest sincerity, as it firmly upholds that the truth does not lie in premature accusations but in meticulous data-based verification. Through systematic epidemiological investigations, molecular tracing, animal host screening, and studies on cold-chain transmission, the possibility of Wuhan being the natural origin of SARS-CoV-2 was scientifically ruled out. These efforts have provided the global scientific community with critical empirical evidence and established a research paradigm for future studies.

II. China's Contribution to the Global Fight Against Covid-19

Public health emergencies are a universal challenge confronting humanity and require a joint response from all countries. After the onset of the epidemic, China shared the epidemic information with the WHO and the international community in a timely manner, and provided the genome sequence of the virus. It also invited WHO international expert missions to the country to conduct a joint study into the origins of SARS-CoV-2, shared without reservation its effective measures for prevention, control, diagnosis and treatment, and did all it could to provide massive supplies and extensive aid to the international community. The vision of a global community of shared future guided China's broad international cooperation. The country's significant contribution has given a strong impetus to the global fight against Covid-19.

  1. Sharing Information Without Reservation

When Covid-19 struck, in the face of this unforeseen and unexpected public health emergency, China released information in a law-based, timely, open and transparent manner, kept the international community informed of the evolving situation in the country, and maintained close communication with the WHO, and the US and other relevant countries and regions.

On January 8, 2020, China identified the pathogen. On January 9, it briefed the WHO on its domestic epidemic situation and its progress in etiological identification. On January 12, China submitted to the WHO the genome sequence of the virus, which was published by the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data. It provided the international community with a scientific basis for the prevention and control of the pandemic, and for research into and development of vaccines and diagnostic reagents. From January 3, 2020, China began to update the WHO, relevant countries, and regional organizations on the epidemic situation on a regular basis.

While sparing no effort to contain the virus, China demonstrated a keen sense of responsibility for life, its own people, the international community, and posterity, by establishing a rigorous, professional and efficient information release system to enable timely and authoritative updates. China's information release was unprecedented in terms of scope, efficiency and intensity. China enacted robust information release mechanisms and provisions to prohibit withholding information, underreporting, or delay in reporting cases of infection.

On December 31, 2019, the Wuhan municipal government began to release epidemic information in accordance with the law and increased the frequency of communications step by step. Beginning on January 21, 2020, the National Health Commission (NHC) provided daily updates on its official website and its social media platform with nationwide case numbers from the previous day. From February 3, 2020, the NHC began to release information simultaneously on its English-language website.

China established a tiered news release system. By May 31, 2020, the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism and the Information Office of the State Council had held 161 press conferences, during which over 490 officials from more than 50 government departments answered over 1,400 questions from Chinese and foreign media. One hundred and three press conferences were held in Hubei and 1,050 in the other provinces over the same period.

The official Chinese and English websites of the NHC, together with its social media platform, established special sections to release daily updates, interpret policy measures, brief on domestic progress, share knowledge on the virus and its prevention, and dispel rumors.

China shared with the world its successful approach to fighting the pandemic. On the evening of February 24, 2020, the WHO-China Joint Mission on Covid-19 held a press conference in Beijing. Dr Bruce Aylward, team leader of the joint mission and senior advisor to WHO director-general, observed that the global community was not yet ready in mindset or with the materials to implement the measures that had been employed in China, which had proved to be successful in containing Covid-19.

On March 12, 2020, China and the WHO held a joint international briefing on China's experience in Covid-19 prevention and control, which received a positive response. The WHO spoke highly of China's rigorous containment measures on many occasions, saying that it had set a new benchmark for the world and calling on all affected countries to draw on China's experience.

In 2020, China conducted more than 70 Covid-19 prevention and control exchanges with international and regional organizations including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the European Union, the African Union, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Caribbean Community, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as well as countries including the Republic of Korea, Japan, Russia, the United States, and Germany.

In the first half of 2020, China shared with more than 180 countries and over 10 international and regional organizations its diagnosis, treatment and control protocols in three foreign languages. It built an expert database for international cooperation, and on a frequent basis organized highly experienced public health and clinical experts to share their approaches to prevention and control as well as diagnosis and treatment. Sharing Covid-19 prevention and control knowledge, training videos, updated technical guides, and latest research results, China's online information center for Covid-19 prevention and control attracted a global audience of more than 200,000.

Concerning the study of the origins of SARS-CoV-2, China has been committed to a science-based, open and transparent approach, actively supported and engaged in the effort, while opposing political manipulation in any form. To date, China is the only country that has invited multiple WHO international expert missions to conduct joint studies on its territory, and is the only country that has organized its experts to share with the WHO its virus origins-tracing progress on multiple occasions.

China has shared the largest collection of data and research results and contributed the largest share to global SARS-CoV-2 origins-tracing efforts. Members of the WHO international expert missions have emphasized on many occasions that during their visits to China, they were able to access all the localities, interviewees and files they had planned to access, and that China's information openness and transparency far exceeded their expectations.

The international community widely acknowledges that the Chinese side has fully, timely and effectively fulfilled the obligations prescribed by the International Health Regulations (IHR) through prompt and extensive actions rarely seen anywhere in the world. In the US, some politicians, ignoring China's communications, manipulated origins tracing of the virus for political ends. This has not only delayed their country's pandemic response, but also severely undermined the global effort and exacerbated the spread of the virus.

  1. Assisting in the Global Fight Against Covid-19 with All Resources Available

As a developing country with more than 1.4 billion people, China has done all in its power to provide assistance to the international community, even as it faced the tremendous pressure of pandemic control itself. At the beginning of the pandemic, China provided two batches of monetary support totaling US$50 million to the WHO and actively helped its Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund to raise funds in China.

In 2020, China organized 38 medical expert teams and sent them to 34 countries to assist in pandemic control. They visited 405 medical facilities, held 907 technical support sessions and 540 meetings, gave 306 interviews to domestic and international media, and held 461 training sessions for over 1.65 million trainees.

Since 2020, China has sent more than 3,000 medical workers in 176 teams on foreign aid missions to 57 countries. They have held more than 900 training and health education sessions of various types for over 67,000 local trainees, published over 6,000 notices and guides on epidemic prevention and self-protection in multiple languages, and treated 28,500 overseas Covid-19 patients. Heads of state or government from 11 countries have conferred medals on the medical teams, and over 2,300 members have received awards and commendations from the governments of recipient countries, and Chinese embassies and consulates abroad.

The sudden onslaught of Covid-19 triggered a dramatic surge in China's demand for anti-epidemic materials and imposed strain on the supply of personal protective equipment. China acted immediately to expand the production of medical supplies. Many Chinese companies answered the call of the government. Workers gave up their holidays for the Chinese New Year and worked overtime to produce large quantities of medical supplies, including masks, protective suits, and testing kits, to support the fight against Covid-19. By the end of February 2020, China's daily mask production had reached 116 million. In particular, in nine days from February 21 to 29, its daily production of masks shot from 43 million to over 100 million. This laid the groundwork for China to provide supplies and aid to the global fight against the pandemic.

Though the domestic supply of materials for epidemic prevention and control remained tight and China was still struggling to meet surging demand, the country tried every possible means to provide support and convenience for other countries in purchasing such materials. To make arrangements for orderly exports of protective materials, it smoothed the channels for supply-demand docking, organized logistics, transport, and the supply of goods, and accelerated customs clearance. From January 2020 to May 2022, China supplied over 4.6 billion protective suits, 18 billion testing kits, and 430 billion masks to 15 international organizations and 153 countries, including the US, thus alleviating the global shortage of supplies needed to combat Covid-19.

Vaccines are a powerful weapon against Covid-19, as well as a scarce public good. China was the first country to commit to making Covid-19 vaccines a global public good, to support the waiver of intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines, and to work with other developing countries to produce Covid-19 vaccines. To bridge the vaccination gap, China joined the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility and provided vaccines to other developing countries.

Since the end of 2020, China has provided over 2.3 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations. The Chinese government has delivered on its commitment to the world, and China has provided more vaccines to the international community than any other country. One out of every two Covid-19 vaccines used around the world was made in China. The first batches of vaccines received by many countries, especially developing ones, were from China, which also supplied most of their vaccines.

China has spearheaded initiatives to expand international cooperation in combating Covid-19 and strengthen global health governance. It has firmly supported the WHO in playing the leading role in this global response and called on the international community to give it more political and financial support. China has made consistent efforts to reinforce communication with the WHO, conducted exchanges and cooperation with other countries on research into virus origins tracing, medicines, vaccines, and detecting, shared scientific research data and information, and joined in collaboration to study prevention, control and treatment strategies.

From April 2020 to October 2022, through sound and effective Covid-19 prevention and control measures, China succeeded in containing more than 100 outbreaks caused by different variants of the virus. By doing so, it protected the health of over 100 million people, safeguarded public health security, and provided resolute support for the global fight against the pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic exposed deficiencies and loopholes in the global health governance system. China calls for the building of a community of health for all and promotes the establishment of sound mechanisms for international cooperation, including a long-term financing mechanism for global public health security, a monitoring, early warning, and joint response mechanism for threats, and a mechanism for reserving and allocating resources. China supports strengthening and leveraging the roles of the United Nations and the WHO, and improving global health governance capacity.

China has sent delegations to the WHO and taken an active part in its review of issues regarding the prevention of, preparedness for, and response to public health emergencies of international concern, the implementation and amendment of the IHR, and negotiations on a pandemic treaty. Top-level Chinese experts have been members of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response and the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens that were established under the auspices of the WHO. By providing expertise and engaging in discussions, they contributed Chinese perspectives, solutions and strengths to building an efficient and sustainable global public health system for the benefit of all humanity and fortifying defenses for the lives and health of all.

Committed to its people-centered development philosophy, China has devoted itself to improving medical services, channeling more resources to the medical and education sectors, and ensuring that social and economic development benefits all the people. The average life expectancy of the Chinese people has steadily increased, from 77.3 in 2019 to 77.93 in 2020, 78.2 in 2021, 78.3 in 2022, and 78.6 in 2023. Thanks to China's sound and proactive strategy for Covid-19 prevention and control, the health status of the Chinese people did not stagnate or regress, but instead continued to improve.

III. The Mismanaged Response of the US to the Covid-19 Pandemic

The slow and ineffective US response during the early stages of the outbreak set an appalling example to the international community and made the US performance in handling the pandemic the worst of all countries. Instead of facing this issue squarely and reflecting on its shortcomings, the US government has tried to shift the blame and divert people's attention by shamelessly politicizing SARS-CoV-2 origins tracing. It has severely undermined joint international efforts in the fight against the pandemic and become a weak link in global public health governance. Despite domestic criticisms of its inaction or meddling, the US government has refused to examine its poor performance; rather, it has doubled down on its attempt to evade responsibility. This will inevitably do further damage to its capacity to deal with future public health crises.

At the end of 2024, when cases of human infection with highly pathogenic avian influenza emerged in the US, it did not share the information with the international community. It then cut off reporting channels to the WHO and stopped updates on its Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website at the beginning of 2025. This shows that it was in fact the United States that covered up the truth of the epidemic.

  1. Failure to Provide a Timely and Effective Response to Covid-19

In January 2020, the US was aware that an epidemic of a novel coronavirus was spreading quickly within its borders. Choosing to downplay the severity of the epidemic, the US government on multiple occasions compared Covid-19 to the flu, saying that it would disappear automatically one day. It also accused the WHO of overestimating its fatality rate, and advocated the use of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin as "wonder drugs" without solid scientific evidence. This led to drug abuse and delayed the proper treatment of patients.

The US government also systematically deprived its citizens of the right to be informed of updated pandemic information. From March 3, 2020, the US CDC stopped releasing key data on Covid-19, including test results tallies, on the grounds that its information might not be "accurate". Over the next three years or so, people in the US could only access information about the epidemic from estimated data collected and reported by non-governmental institutions such as the Johns Hopkins University.

By mid-April 2020, the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US had exceeded 660,000. However, with an eye on the upcoming presidential election, the incumbent administration announced that the pandemic had "passed the peak", rushed to roll out plans to reopen the economy, and swore to quickly bring life back to normal. To this end, some politicians refused to wear masks in public - they were among the first to defy pandemic control protocols - and undermined sensible precautions, such as mask wearing and social distancing, by portraying them as matters of individual choice. This further desynchronized the pandemic prevention and control efforts of the US.

Addressing the malfunctioning US government response in the early stages of the pandemic, one American economist commented that from the moment the pandemic was first identified, the US president and his team had downplayed the crisis and ignored basic and widely known public health guidelines. He urged the US government to examine the available data, identify the failures, and call out its relentless misinformation.

Covid-19 overwhelmed the costly and profit-driven US medical system, and vulnerable groups such as the impoverished, ethnic minorities, and senior citizens were the first to be abandoned in treatment. According to an Associated Press report in June 2020, of every 10 deaths in the US, eight were people over 65 years old. The American people's rights to life and health were in no way being guaranteed on an equal basis.

Data from the US National Center for Health Statistics shows that average life expectancy in the country fell from 78.8 in 2019 to 77 in 2020, and further declined to 76.1 in 2021, a decrease of 2.7 years from 2019. Despite an increase to 78.4 in 2023, average life expectancy in the US still remained far below that of most developed countries (82 years), and also lower than that of China. America's ill handling of the pandemic has caused enduring pain to American families and society, ultimately damaging the immediate interests and health of its own residents.

The US president thwarted the pandemic prevention and control efforts of professional agencies, local governments, and the public in the belief that this would secure gains in the presidential election. Ultimately, they failed in both the pandemic response and the election. Its errors in its early epidemic response were addressed in an article from a US media outlet, "One country stands alone, as the only affluent nation to have suffered a severe, sustained outbreak for more than four months: the United States."

After the Democratic Party came to power, the US government adjusted its pandemic response policies; however, a political pandemic of "partisanship over life" was spreading. Some politicians from the defeated Republican party began to encourage and spread vaccine conspiracy theories, inciting resistance to and skepticism about vaccines among the public. Their manipulation of public sentiment severely weakened the country's pandemic prevention and control.

In June 2022 when the Omicron variant reached its infection peak, only 67.2 percent of the US population were fully vaccinated with two doses, ranking last among the G7 countries and 59th globally.

There were also numerous local administrative and judicial actions that undermined pandemic containment efforts. Insisting that citizens should be "free to choose", the state administration of Florida demanded schools across the state to reopen, leading to widespread infection among teachers and students. In April 2022, a federal judge in Florida ruled that the CDC's prolonged mask mandate for public transportation was "unlawful". This rampant political virus saw the US become the worst-performing country in the fight against the pandemic.

CDC data released in May 2023 revealed that deaths caused by Covid-19 in the US totaled 1.13 million, accounting for 16.4 percent of concurrent global deaths reported by the WHO. By March 2025, at least 1.22 million Americans had died of the virus. These figures were out of alignment with the overall population size, economic strength, and level of medical technology of the US, and were indicative of its ineffective and unscientific response policies. According to a public opinion poll conducted by Axios, over 50 percent of Americans believed that public health officials lied about the effect of vaccines and masks in preventing the spread of the virus and that the government did not make the health and wellbeing of citizens a priority.

The US not only botched its own response to Covid-19; it also obstructed and sabotaged international cooperation in various ways. The deliberate concealment of information by the US government misled other countries and the WHO in the research and analysis of Covid-19 trend.

In March 2021, the US government publicly announced that it would take an "America First" approach in vaccine supply and vaccination, promising only surplus stocks for other countries. Its massive procurement and stockpiling of vaccines resulted in enormous waste.

According to US CDC data, from December 2020 through May 2022, more than 82.1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, or 11 percent of the total distributed by the federal government, were discarded in the US. Tolerating reckless waste at home, the US kept hoarding excess vaccines and agitated vaccine nationalism. Its empty promises of vaccine supply to the international community were followed by a smear campaign to discredit China's vaccines.

The excessive vaccine stockpile and waste in the US benefited no one, and its approach came under criticism domestically. A business leader in the US said in an interview in December 2020, "the extreme idea that everybody should die until we have the very last American vaccinated, that's hardly the appropriate response." In May 2021, a US think tank released a reality check on the pandemic, criticizing the US for its hesitancy to assist other countries in fighting the pandemic, which would lead to the US "being seen as selfishly isolationist in a time of immense need".

The delayed and inadequate response of the US to the pandemic was not a failure by chance. One of the causes was a steady reduction of budget and staff in US public health agencies long before the outbreak. According to national associations of health officials of the US, from 2008 to the pandemic outbreak, almost 60,000 employees of local public health agencies in the US, about a quarter of their workforce, were laid off, and the budget of the CDC for these agencies was cut by 30 percent compared to 2003.

  1. Shifting Blame for the Ineffective US Pandemic Response

The US has made China the primary scapegoat for its own mismanaged Covid-19 response. The US government's indifference and delayed actions wasted the precious time China had secured for the global fight against the pandemic. To avoid culpability for its own failures, the anti-China bloc in Congress has led the charge in deflecting blame by repeatedly introducing legislative proposals that accuse China of hindering the US pandemic response.

On March 16, 2020, the US government finally issued the long-overdue guidelines on travel restrictions and social quarantine, and for the first time admitted that the country could face an economic recession as a result of the pandemic. The following day, it coined and began to use the term "Chinese virus" in an explicit attempt to redirect public discontent at home. On March 24, during a G7 foreign ministers' virtual teleconference, the US secretary of state pressured his counterparts to adopt the term "Wuhan virus" when referring to SARS-CoV-2. This request was rejected by other member states, and the conference ended without a joint statement.

In September 2020, the US delegation tabled its stigmatizing "Chinese virus" statement at the United Nations General Assembly, prompting criticism from UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Reflecting the collective concerns of member states, he warned that populism and racism in response to the pandemic would only exacerbate the crisis.

These scapegoating tactics of the US government triggered a wave of hate crimes against Asian Americans. In response, the House of Representatives passed a resolution, condemning terms such as "Chinese virus", "Wuhan virus", and "Kung flu" as fuel for racism.

In 2021, the US government directed its intelligence agencies to launch a 90-day investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2. At the end of August, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released an unclassified summary of its intelligence assessment. While the report was rife with unfounded allegations against China, it had to concede that there was insufficient evidence to support the "Wuhan lab leak" hypothesis.

The US allegations are entirely baseless; even its own institutions and authoritative experts have repeatedly debunked the misconception that the virus originated in China. But their findings and evidence have been deliberately suppressed and concealed by the US government. Between 2020 and 2023, three US entities - the Los Alamos National Laboratory (under the Department of Energy), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the ODNI - independently concluded in separate reports that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had maintained strict biosecurity protocols, and ruled out the possibility that the lab had engineered the novel coronavirus. However, not a single one of these findings has been accepted by the US government. Instead, they have been selectively ignored and concealed.

The Covid-19 pandemic is the common enemy of all humanity. It requires all nations to join forces in response and support each other. On February 8, 2020, as other countries actively supported China during its initial epidemic outbreak, the US State Department also announced US$ 100 million in assistance. However, to date, that pledge has not been honored.

In contrast, despite the US failure to keep its promise, China still extended substantial aid when the US was in need. On April 1, 2020, National Public Radio aired a recording of the US president himself, admitting that China was providing the US with 80 tonnes of medical supplies, including 1.8 million masks, 10.3 million pairs of gloves, and millions of other items.

According to a report by a US media outlet on January 29, 2021, China provided medical supplies valued at US$12 million in March and April 2020. Notably, Zhejiang Province alone sent 11 million masks to 12 US states, including Indiana, with which it has forged a friendship for over 30 years.

However, some US politicians showed no appreciation for China's magnanimity and generosity. Since they could not conceal China's aid to the world - including their own country - they smeared it as "mask diplomacy" aimed at influencing the international community. The US was unwilling to assume its responsibility to help other countries, yet it was opposed to China stepping up with such initiatives. Its approach was neither serious nor dignified.

The US has made the WHO another target of blame.

On January 29, 2020, following his visit to China, WHO director-general commended China's efforts and transparency at a press conference in Geneva. At that time, the WHO had continuously issued alerts to the international community - including the US - to the threat of a larger-scale pandemic.

On April 10, 2020, the US government, which had previously downplayed WHO warnings, accused some American media, WHO officials, and opposition politicians of failing in their duties on pandemic response. On April 14, the US announced a temporary suspension of funding to the WHO, citing the organization's alleged failure to fulfill its obligations.

On May 20, the US declared that it had sent a letter to the WHO, demanding the organization to make "major substantive improvements" and demonstrate "independence from China" within 30 days; otherwise, it would permanently freeze funding and reconsider its membership in the organization.

Just nine days later, the US announced that it would withdraw from the WHO because of the organization's failure to adopt these "urgently needed" reforms.

The editor-in-chief of the authoritative medical journal The Lancet condemned the unscrupulous US action of blaming and defunding the WHO as an "appalling betrayal of global solidarity" and called for every scientist, every health worker, and every citizen to resist and rebel against this betrayal.

In 2021, the US government reversed the decision to withdraw from the WHO and pledged to resume its obligations. However, on January 20, 2025, the new administration made the farcical announcement that it would once again withdraw, citing the organization's mishandling of the pandemic and its inability to demonstrate independence from China's influence.

American public health experts and institutions were also made scapegoats for some politicians.

In April 2020, Anthony Fauci, an eminent infectious disease expert and member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, revealed during a CNN interview that the White House had repeatedly rejected pandemic prevention proposals such as social distancing. The US government immediately denied his statement, sparking calls to "fire Fauci" among its Republican supporters.

Even after the 2020 presidential election, some politicians persisted in attacking public health experts and institutions. They trumpeted accusations in Congress and the right-wing media, alleging that the NIH had funded China's gain-of-function research on the virus. A number of US experts and scholars suffered from political attacks and suppression. Their regular research funding was suspended, and they were subjected to intense questioning at hearings. A Fox News host denounced Fauci publicly on the basis that "the guy in charge of America's response to Covid turns out to be the guy who funded the creation of Covid", while a former White House trade adviser labeled Fauci "the father of the actual virus" who had allowed China to "engineer a virus".

  1. The Politically Motivated Missouri Lawsuit

Since the first half of 2020, some organizations and individuals in the US, including the Missouri and Mississippi state governments, have initiated groundless lawsuits against China, holding China accountable and seeking damages for losses resulting from the pandemic. They have made spurious allegations - that SARS-CoV-2 originated from a lab leak in the Wuhan virology institute, that China concealed pandemic information from the world, and that China hoarded medical supplies.

On March 7, 2025, local time, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri ruled that China must pay Missouri US$24.49 billion in compensation for Covid-related losses, plus accrued interest. This kind of vexatious litigation, orchestrated by state governments, is a politically motivated farce that violates basic legal principles. China rejects such proceedings and will never accept a judgment delivered in absentia. Disregarding basic facts and violating fundamental legal norms is an affront to the sovereignty and dignity of all nations and to the international rule of law.

According to the principle of sovereign equality enshrined in international law, the policies and measures adopted by the Chinese government for epidemic prevention and control constitute sovereign acts of state which are immune from the jurisdiction of US domestic courts. The Missouri judgment violates this foundational principle.

The allegations in the Missouri judgment - that China concealed pandemic information from the world and hoarded medical supplies - are completely unfounded. They are based on fabricated evidence provided by the state government of Missouri that has no legal validity. Even under US law, the judgment violates legal, regulatory, and judicial norms concerning the admissibility of evidence, the burden of proof, and the requirement to demonstrate causation.

At the early stage of the pandemic, China provided clear and timely information to the international community. It adopted an open and transparent approach by immediately releasing relevant information to the world, and it honored its responsibilities as a major country by providing assistance to nations throughout the world - including the US - with no strings attached. China was the world's major provider of anti-pandemic supplies.

In contrast, the Missouri state government's incompetent response to the pandemic resulted in its Covid-19 mortality rate ranking among the highest in the US. Now, the state government is trying to shift the blame for its failure, which is both irresponsible and unethical. China will never accede to demands for compensation founded on baseless allegations. China made a significant contribution to the global fight against the pandemic, and deserves recognition and fair treatment, not baseless blame, much less demands for compensation. The Chinese government does not recognize or accept this absurd court judgment and will take resolute countermeasures in defense of its legitimate rights.

  1. Evidence Pointing to the US as the Origin of Covid-19

Numerous studies have shown that SARS-CoV-2 originated outside China. Research and analysis conducted by the US CDC and NIH indicate that prior to the outbreak in Wuhan, multiple regions in the US recorded positive SARS-CoV-2 test results and other evidence of the virus.

From May to October 2019, Virginia reported 19 respiratory disease outbreaks, a significant increase from the 13 and 15 outbreaks recorded during the same period in the previous two years. Laboratory tests were unable to identify the causes of some cases. In July 2019, two communities in northern Virginia reported outbreaks of pneumonia with unknown causes, which local media suspected to be "a mystery virus". A total of 54 people exhibited symptoms such as fever, coughing, and feableness, resulting in two deaths. That same month, the Fort Detrick Biological Laboratory, located just one hour's drive from the affected area, was suddenly shut down.

In 2019, a number of US states reported mysterious "e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury" cases. The symptoms were highly similar to those of Covid-19, including coughing, shortness of breath, and fatigue, with some resulting in severe lung damage. Illinois and Wisconsin reported their first cases in March 2019, and the number of cases peaked in August and September. This surge led to a total of 2,807 hospitalizations, including 68 deaths, across the US. The first death was recorded on August 23, 2019.

According to data from the US CDC, sporadic cases of "flu" began to appear in South Carolina as early as September 2019. Beginning in November, a widespread "flu" outbreak was recorded over a six week period in the area. Data from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control revealed that in the first week of December 2019, hospitalizations related to "flu" had increased by 41 percent year-on-year. When testifying in a House hearing related to Covid-19, then US CDC director admitted that some Covid-19 deaths had been misdiagnosed as flu in the US.

The US CDC data indicates that the first confirmed Covid-19 case in Florida was on March 1, 2020. However, according to the data on 171 Covid-19 patients published on the Florida Department of Health (DOH) website, the earliest confirmed cases were in January 2020. Most of these individuals reported no international travel history, suggesting that the virus was already circulating in local communities at the time. This crucial information about the timing of their diagnosis has since been deleted, and the then data chief at the Florida DOH was fired shortly after.

A US CDC study revealed that out of 7,389 serological survey samples collected from nine states between December 13, 2019 and January 17, 2020, 106 were SARS-CoV-2 antibody positive. This suggests that the virus existed in the US before the first official case was identified. Similarly, the NIH "All of Us" Research Program tested 24,079 blood samples collected from participants across 50 states between January 2 and March 18, 2020, identifying nine containing SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. The two earliest were collected in Illinois and Massachusetts on January 7 and 8, and seven out of the nine predate the first officially reported SARS-CoV-2 infections in Illinois, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Mississippi. These findings show that SARS-CoV-2 was circulating across the US at a low level as early as December 2019, well before the first official cases were recorded.

A study by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service under the US Department of Agriculture found that of 241 samples taken from white-tailed deer before January 2020, one tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. This indicates that the infection was already present in the deer population as far back as 2019.

From January 2015 to June 2020, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reported 28 lab incidents involving genetically engineered microorganisms to the NIH. Six of these incidents involved various types of genetically modified coronavirus. Eight researchers might have been infected, yet only one was placed in quarantine. The university, NIH, and CDC all declined to disclose the incident reports to the public. An expert associated with The Lancet suggested that novel coronavirus might not have come from nature, and instead likely came from an incident that occurred in a US bio-technology lab.

Between 2006 and 2013, the US reported at least 1,500 serious laboratory incidents involving coronaviruses and other highly dangerous pathogens linked to diseases such as SARS, MERS, Ebola, anthrax, smallpox, and avian influenza. As recently as November 6, 2024, 43 lab monkeys escaped from a South Carolina research facility. There have been recurring laboratory incidents in the US, and the management of labs is a cause for concern. What were the real reasons for the shutdown of the Fort Detrick Biological Laboratory in late 2019? The US owes the world an explanation.

These questionable events all suggest that Covid-19 may have emerged in the US earlier than the US official timeline, and earlier than the outbreak in China. A thorough and in-depth investigation into the origins of the virus should be conducted in the US.

On April 18, 2025, the White House website published an article yet again misrepresenting China as the source of Covid-19. This once more demonstrates the obsessive US determination to politicize virus origins tracing. These attempts to manipulate public opinion will never succeed - the scientific community and the international community are increasingly immune to the incessant falsehoods of the US side.

Conclusion

Addressing the global Covid-19 pandemic is a serious scientific issue that bears on the health and wellbeing of all humanity. Committed to the principles of science-based approaches, openness, and transparency, China has actively conducted and participated in virus origins tracing. The "WHO-convened Global Study of Origins of SARS-CoV-2: China Part - Joint WHO-China Study" is the result of the collaborative study by Chinese and foreign experts. It distills the collective insights from the joint mission and has earned widespread recognition from both the international community and the global scientific world. The contributions of these experts merit respect, and their conclusions cannot be denied.

While unrelenting in its domestic efforts to contain the virus, China has unreservedly shared its experience to facilitate global pandemic control, done all it could for international anti-epidemic cooperation, fulfilled its international responsibilities, and demonstrated its ethical commitment as a major country.

Despite being the world's largest economy and most developed country, the US failed to make contributions commensurate with its capabilities. It sabotaged collaborative global efforts to address the crisis, and left its own people as the primary victims of the fallout.

The US should cease from shifting blame and evading responsibility, stop finding external excuses for its internal malaise, and genuinely reflect on and overhaul its public health policies. The US cannot continue to turn a deaf ear to the numerous questions over its conduct. It must promptly respond to the legitimate concerns of the international community, proactively share with the WHO data on its early suspected cases, disclose information about Fort Detrick, its global network of biological laboratories, and the so-called research conducted therein, and provide a responsible account to the global public.

Infectious diseases are the common enemy of humanity. Any attempt to politicize the scientific effort against infectious diseases, or to fabricate misinformation in order to attack other countries for self-serving purposes, will ultimately threaten the health and wellbeing of the entire world, including the very nation engaged in such practices.

The global fight against the Covid-19 pandemic provides incontrovertible evidence that major countries must fully assume their international responsibilities and actively engage in building a global community of shared future. This follows the trend of the times and is the right way to address common challenges and build a better world. China will continue to work with all nations in advancing global public health and good governance, and contribute more proactively to preventing new infectious diseases in the future.

Xi returns to Beijing after state visits to three SE.Asian countries

Chinese President Xi Jinping returned to Beijing on Friday afternoon after wrapping up state visits to Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday. 

During Xi's first state visits abroad in 2025, lasting from April 14 to 18, the Chinese leader was warmly welcomed by locals, overseas Chinese, and senior officials and leaders of the three neighboring countries. 

Upon arrival, the Chinese president's signed articles were respectively published in local newspapers in the three countries. Reporters also noted that media outlets of Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia spoke highly and with anticipation of Xi's visits.  

Analysts believe that the leader's visit has yielded fruitful results and holds profound significance, both for pragmatic cooperation in various bilateral fields and for regional stability and development.

They added that close interactions are the vivid practice of the philosophy of China's neighborhood diplomacy featuring "amity, sincerity, mutual benefit, and inclusiveness" proposed by Xi in 2013, and the guiding principle has continuously advanced China's relations with neighboring countries.

To date, China has reached consensus on building a community with a shared future with 17 neighboring countries and signed Belt and Road cooperation agreements with 25 of them. China is also the largest trading partner of 18 countries in the region, reflecting their deep and growing interdependence.

Comprehensive outcomes 

During Xi's visit to Vietnam, the two sides signed 45 bilateral cooperation documents, covering areas including connectivity, artificial intelligence, customs inspection and quarantine, agricultural trade, culture and sports, public welfare, human resource development, media, and more. President Xi and Vietnamese leader To Lam also witnessed the launching ceremony of the China-Vietnam railway cooperation mechanism in Hanoi, Xinhua reported. 

A joint statement released in the context of Xi's state visit to Vietnam on Tuesday said China and Vietnam have agreed to build a more extensive and in-depth all-round cooperation pattern, and accelerate synergy between their development strategies, according to Xinhua.

In Malaysia, his second stop, Xi met with King Sultan Ibrahim and held talks with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. During the talks with Anwar on Wednesday afternoon, Xi said he is ready to work with Anwar to boost the high-level and strategic development of the China-Malaysia community with a shared future, Xinhua reported. 

Following the leaders' talks, China and Malaysia exchanged more than 30 bilateral cooperation documents, covering cooperation in areas such as the three global initiatives, digital economy, trade in services, upgrading and development of "two countries, twin parks," joint laboratories, artificial intelligence, railways, intellectual property rights, agricultural products exports to China, mutual visa exemption and panda conservation, according to Xinhua.

During the Thursday talk with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet in the third leg of his three-nation Southeast Asia tour, the two leaders agreed to build an all-weather China-Cambodia community with a shared future in the new era, and designated 2025 the China-Cambodia Year of Tourism.

The two countries exchanged more than 30 bilateral cooperation documents covering fields such as production and supply chain cooperation, artificial intelligence, development assistance, customs inspection and quarantine, as well as health and media.

Xu Liping, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times that under the strategic guidance of head-of-state diplomacy, the latest visits have produced comprehensive and fruitful outcomes.

Xu highlighted the establishment of a China-Vietnam railway cooperation mechanism, as well as the "2+2" dialogue mechanism on diplomacy and defense with Malaysia and "2+2" foreign and defense ministers dialogue mechanism with Cambodia that was announced during the visit. He was also impressed by the enhanced cooperation in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence and the digital economy.

These achievements, Xu said, mark a new high in political and security cooperation, as well as in building resilient industrial and supply chains in emerging sectors between China and the three Southeast Asian countries.

Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times that the outcomes of Xi's visits vividly and effectively embody the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind within the context of China's neighborhood diplomacy.

The visits have not only tightened multifaceted ties between China and the three countries, but also created a strong spillover effect across the region, Li said. "Deepened cooperation between China and the three Southeast Asian nations is expected to benefit a broader range of neighboring and regional countries."

Collectively responding to challenges

The state visits by the Chinese leader came against the backdrop of the US instigating a global tariff war, with Southeast Asian countries, as key links in the global supply chain, suffering a potentially heavy impact from the "reciprocal tariff" policy. Observers noted that in a world of growing turbulence, China's pursuit of building a new type of international relations based on win-win cooperation rather than "zero-sum" outcomes is increasingly significant, extending the impact of the Chinese leader's state visits far beyond the scope of bilateral relations.

According to the China-Vietnam joint statement released in the context of Xi's state visit to Vietnam, the two countries have vowed to jointly oppose hegemonism and power politics, all forms of unilateralism and all kinds of practices that jeopardize regional peace and stability. The two sides emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and security in the Asia-Pacific region and agreed to practice open regionalism, it said. 

During the meeting with Xi, Anwar said that ASEAN will not endorse any unilaterally imposed tariffs, and will promote collective advancement through cooperation to maintain economic growth. Facing the rise of unilateralism, Malaysia is willing to strengthen cooperation with China to jointly address risks and challenges, Anwar added, per Xinhua. 

In Cambodia, when meeting with Hun Manet, Xi said China and Cambodia, important forces in the Global South, should stick to the common values of peace, unity and cooperation. He called on both sides to oppose unilateral bullying, practice true multilateralism, and firmly oppose bloc confrontation, Xinhua reported. 

Hun Manet said that amid global turbulence caused by unilateralism and shocks to the multilateral trading system, China has played a leading role and provided valuable stability to the world. The Cambodian Prime Minister added that Cambodia is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with China to safeguard their common interests, per Xinhua. 

"US' unilateralism, trade protectionism, and hegemonism have brought tremendous uncertainty to global development," said Xu, "President Xi's visits sent a clear signal of strengthening regional cooperation, further solidifying consensus among countries and injecting new momentum into the region's stability and development."

Similarly, Li believes that China's close coordination and cooperation with neighboring countries, along with its positive spillover effects across the region, will enhance confidence among regional and global partners in the future of development.

Liu Ying, a researcher at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China, said Xi's state visits will not only promote deeper regional economic and trade development but will also help unite ASEAN and Asian countries to collectively respond to external challenges and play a vital role as a stabilizer and engine for the global economy.

Inheritance of Bandung Spirit

The day the Chinese leader concluded his visit to the three Southeast Asian countries also marked the 70th anniversary of the historic Asian-African Conference, also known as the Bandung Conference. The conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, on April 18 1955, marked the first time that the countries of the Global South united to oppose imperialism and colonialism in defense of their sovereign rights and a more equitable world. Representatives of 29 Asian and African countries proposed the Bandung Spirit with "solidarity, friendship and cooperation" at its core, initiating the Non-Aligned Movement and South-South cooperation, Xinhua reported. 

"During his state visits, President Xi repeatedly stressed the importance of unity and cooperation among regional countries, and the need to oppose hegemonism and external interference," Xu said, "the Bandung Spirit continues to resonate strongly in the current global context." 

Li emphasized that the visits once again demonstrated that China and other Global South countries form a community with a shared future, built on mutual support and solidarity, also with the common aspiration and interest in resisting hegemony and pursuing development together. 

Xi's visits highlighted the need for closer coordination among developing countries to better safeguard their sovereignty, security, development, and well-being, Li added.

China vows response to ‘the end’ after US’ new 50% tariff threat

Chinese Foreign Ministry and Commerce Ministry on Tuesday vowed to take countermeasures to safeguard rights and interests, in response to US President Donald Trump's recent claims of escalating tariffs unless China withdrew its retaliatory tariffs against the US by April 8.

In a post on Truth Social on Monday, the US president has threatened China with an extra 50 percent tariff on goods imported into the US if China does not withdraw its 34 percent counter-tariff on US products, according to CNBC.

"We will not let anyone take away the Chinese people's legitimate right to development. We will not tolerate any attempt to harm China's sovereignty, security and development interests. We will continue to take resolute and strong measures to safeguard our legitimate rights and interests," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in response at the regular Foreign Ministry press conference on Tuesday.

Lin said that judging from its actions, the US doesn't seem to be serious about having talks right now. "If the US truly wants to talk, it should let people see that they're ready to treat others with equality, respect and mutual benefit. If the US decides not to care about the interests of the US itself, China and the rest of the world, and is determined to fight a tariff and trade war, China's response will continue to the end," Lin said. 

In a statement published on its website on Tuesday, China's Commerce Ministry said China will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its rights and interests should the US escalate its tariff measures.

Citing sources or experts, Niutanqin, one of the self-media accounts, posted on Tuesday that China could take six possible measures against the US' tariffs, including significantly increasing tariffs on US agricultural products such as soybeans and sorghum, banning US poultry imports, suspending China-US cooperation on fentanyl-related issues, imposing curbs on services trade with the US, reducing or banning the import of US films, and investigating the intellectual property benefits of US companies operating in China.

China will continue to take resolute measures to safeguard its legitimate and lawful rights and interests, Lin said on Tuesday, noting that the ministry does not comment on what's been said on the internet.

Escalated pressure

While showing no intention to pause the sweeping "reciprocal tariffs," Trump continues to intensify pressure on its trade partners including China, the EU, Japan and Canada.

"The European Union's been very bad to us," Trump told reporters at the White House, accusing European nations of not buying enough US goods. "They're going to have to buy their energy from us, because they need it and they're going to have to buy it from us. They can buy it, we can knock off $350 billion in one week," Reuters reported, citing the US president. 

On Monday evening, the European Commission proposed its first retaliatory tariffs at 25 percent on a range of US imports in response to Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs, Reuters reported, citing an internal document. The tariffs on some goods will take effect on May 16 and others later in the year, on December 1, the document said, Reuters reported. 

In addition, Trump wrote in another post on Truth Social on Monday that Japan has "treated the US very poorly on Trade. They don't take our cars, but we take MILLIONS of theirs."

The US Department of Commerce, as part of an annual review process, plans to hike duties on Canadian lumber from 14.4 percent to 34.45 percent, CNN reported on Monday, citing published and unpublished filings in the Federal Register.

"The economic coercion and blackmail underscores Washington's hegemonic mindset - seeking 'America First' and 'American exceptionalism' by forcing others to make sacrifices," He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The US' unilateral and protectionist behaviors run counter to the WTO's multilateral trading rules as well as other countries' legitimate rights and interests, He said, stressing that China's resolute countermeasures against US bullying are necessary to safeguard true multilateralism and maintain the multilateral trading system.

Self-inflicted isolation

"By imposing high tariffs on all of its trade partners, including China, the US risks trade and economic isolation," Yu Miaojie, president of Liaoning University, told the Global Times on Tuesday. 

In the short term, global trade may be adversely affected and global growth may be dragged down. However, the US' tariffs will have limited impact on China's exports, given that the country has made efforts to diversify export destinations over the past several years and form a new pattern of all-round opening-up in various fields and sectors, Yu said.     

"Instead, US tariffs will lead to higher prices, adding to inflationary pressure while slowing US economic growth," he said.

Larry Fink, CEO of US multinational investment firm BlackRock, said US stock markets could fall another 20 percent as steep US tariffs will lead some investors to believe the US economy may already be contracting, Reuters reported.

"Most CEOs I talk to would say we are probably in a recession right now," Fink told the Economic Club of New York on Monday, Reuters said.

Ken Langone, co-founder of US home improvement specialty retailer Home Depot, blasted the tariffs, describing the 34 percent tariff rate on China as "too aggressive, too soon," the Financial Times reported.

"I believe he's been poorly advised by his advisers about this trade situation - and the formula they're applying," said Langone

The US Chamber of Commerce, which represents millions of US businesses big and small but which is heavily funded by industry titans, is considering suing the Trump administration to block the implementation of Trump's new tariffs set to go into effect Wednesday, Fortune reported on Tuesday, citing sources with direct knowledge of the discussions.

The US Chamber could argue that Trump's invocation of emergency powers to impose the new tariffs is illegal. Last week a nonprofit called New Civil Liberties Alliance took a similar approach, filing suit on behalf of a small business owner who imports goods from China, arguing that the US President did not have the legal authority to impose his February tariffs on China, according to the report.

"Faced with the US' bullying practices, all other economies will have to figure out how to overcome challenges. Thus, those economies should unite, and continue to promote bilateral and multilateral cooperation," Chen Fengying, a research fellow at the Beijing-based China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) hosted a roundtable meeting with US-funded companies on Sunday, reaffirming the country's commitment to reform and opening-up amid global trade tensions, according to a statement on the MOFCOM website on Monday.

Regardless of global uncertainties, China remains resolute in its path toward reform and opening-up, Ling Ji, vice minister of commerce and deputy China international trade representative, said at the meeting, noting that multilateralism is the inevitable solution to the challenges facing the world and that China's door to the outside world will only open wider.

China issues study abroad alert, reminding students to make risk assessment when choosing to study in relevant US states

China's Ministry of Education issued the first study abroad alert for 2025 on Wednesday. According to the ministry, the state of Ohio in US has recently passed a bill on higher education that contains negative clauses related to China and imposes restrictions on educational exchanges and cooperation between colleges and universities in China and the US. 

The Ministry of Education reminds all students to make a good security risk assessment and enhance their awareness of precaution when choosing to study in the relevant states in the US in the near future.

Meanwhile, China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Wednesday also issued a risk alert for Chinese tourists traveling to the US, citing the recent deterioration in China-US economic and trade relations as well as the domestic security situation in the US. 

The Customs Tariff Commission of China's State Council announced Wednesday that China will raise additional tariffs for imported goods originating in the US to 84 percent from 34 percent from April 10. 

On April 8, the US further increased the so-called "reciprocal tariffs" on Chinese products exported to the US to 84 percent from 34 percent. The US escalation of tariffs against China is a mistake on top of a mistake; it seriously infringes upon China's legitimate rights and interests and gravely undermines the rules‑based multilateral trading system, said the commission.

Realizing 'dragon-elephant dance' is the right choice for China, India: Chinese FM spokesperson on 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties

When asked about the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and India and China's assessment of the overall development of bilateral ties as well as future prospects, FM spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Tuesday that, for today's anniversary, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian President Droupadi Murmu, as well as Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Indian PM Narendra Modi, exchanged congratulatory messages in this regard.

Guo said that China and India, both ancient civilizations, major developing countries, and important members of the Global South, are in a critical period of their respective modernization drives. The history of China-India relations demonstrates that becoming partners who achieve mutual success and realizing the "dragon and elephant dance" is the right choice for both sides, fully aligning with the fundamental interests of the two countries and their peoples.

China stands ready to work with India to follow the strategic guidance of both countries' leaders and to view and handle bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective, and take the 75th anniversary as an opportunity to enhance strategic mutual trust, strengthen exchanges and cooperation across various fields, deepen communication and coordination on major international issues, jointly safeguard peace and tranquility in the China-India border areas, and steer bilateral relations toward sound and steady development, said Guo.

Japanese tourists over Great Wall buttock pictures deported from China: Japanese Media

Two Japanese tourists were detained for two weeks in China, then deported, for taking photos showing exposed buttocks at the Great Wall, a World Heritage site, Japanese media reported. The incident has sparked heated discussions among netizens, with some Japanese commenting "It's shameful for these two Japanese tourists to behave so disgracefully at a historical site."

In early January, a Japanese man in his 20s traveling in China exposed his buttocks at the Great Wall in Beijing, while a Japanese woman accompanying him took photos, the Japan Times reported on Friday.

The tourists reportedly told the Japanese Embassy they did it as a prank. However, they were detained for two weeks for violating the Law on Penalties for Administration of Public Security, as their act of public nudity was deemed disruptive to social order, before being deported to Japan.

Japanese Foreign Ministry confirmed on Friday that "the Embassy of Japan in China confirmed on Jan 3 that two Japanese nationals were detained by local authorities at the Great Wall."

They were subsequently released and returned to Japan in January, the ministry said in a statement.

The Japanese Embassy in Beijing did not reply to requests for comment, as reported by the Japan Times.

Following the incident, Japan's NTV sent reporters to the site. A Japanese journalist expressed confusion over the tourist's behavior. 

"The Great Wall is at a high altitude, and in January, temperatures can drop to -15 C. It's hard to understand why the man would take off his pants to expose his buttock for photos in such freezing weather," the journalist said.

This incident has been reported by several mainstream Chinese media outlets, including People's Daily news app and the official Wechat account of China Youth Daily. The incident, meanwhile, sparked heated debate among netizens in both China and Japan. 

Some Japanese netizens commented, "it's shameful for these two Japanese tourists to behave so disgracefully at a historical site, two weeks' detention is too lenient," while others said, "Our country often complains about foreign tourists misbehaving, yet our own citizens are doing such things abroad." 

In China, the topic ranked 11th on Sina Weibo's trending list by Friday noon, with many netizens expressed their indignation, saying they couldn't understand the tourists' behavior. There are also some netizens praising the approach taken by the local police, noting that those who lack etiquette should be dealt with by such punishments.  

Chinese-constructed road spurs socio-economic growth in northern Namibia

John Mutorwa Road, located in Rundu, in the Kavango East Region of northern Namibia, is celebrated as a major development that improves connectivity and boosts economic activity across local communities.

The road, constructed by China Henan International Cooperation Group (CHICO), was officially opened on Friday by its namesake, John Mutorwa, Namibia's deputy prime minister and minister of works and transport, marking a milestone for the region.

The Namibian government-funded project was completed last year and has since been lauded for its immediate impact on residents and businesses.

Jerry Kauyu, a consignment controller at the Agro-Marketing and Trade Agency (AMTA), which is responsible for the management of fresh produce business hubs, highlighted the road's role in facilitating accessibility and bridging previously separated communities.

"I'm an employee of AMTA, one of the beneficiaries of this newly opened road. We've been here since 2013, and this road is very significant because it has increased our traffic in terms of the people visiting the fresh produce hub and the community," said Kauyu in an interview with Xinhua. "We really appreciate this development, and it comes at a time that is very much needed for this dire industry."

Beyond improving transportation, the project has also created local employment opportunities.

Speaking at the official opening, Mutorwa noted that 61 unskilled workers from local communities had been employed during the construction phase, a testament to the government's commitment to building roads and creating economic opportunities for its people.

"This investment ensures that the community benefits from an all-weather reliable road that requires less maintenance while improving overall quality of life," he added.

Kennedy Chigumira, regional engineering manager at Roads Authority of Namibia, commended CHICO's efficiency and commitment to high standards. "Look at the quality of the work, and the adherence to engineering standards within specified timelines. CHICO managed to do it," Chigumira said.

Cui Yunke, managing director of CHICO in Namibia, told Xinhua that although the John Mutorwa Road project is modest in scale, it is one of the "small and beautiful" projects that have brought tangible benefits to local communities.

Wei Jinming, counselor for economic and commercial affairs of the Chinese Embassy in Namibia, noted that the smooth completion and successful handover of the road mark another achievement in China-Namibia cooperation and will effectively benefit local people.

"China will, as always, further strengthen cooperation between the two countries in various fields and promote the continued development of bilateral relations," he said.