China on Monday rejected former US President Donald Trump's demand to pay USD 10 trillion as reparations to America and the world for the death and destruction caused by the Covid-19, saying the accountability lies with politicians who ignored people’s lives and health.
Speaking at a Republican Party convention in North Carolina on Saturday, Trump, who termed the Covid-19 as "China virus" and "Wuhan virus", said China should pay hefty compensation.
"China should pay USD 10 trillion to America, and the world, for the death and destruction they have caused!" said Trump.
When he was in power, Trump had called for a probe alleging that the virus had leaked from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and even pulled out of the World Health Organisation (WHO) accusing the UN health agency of supporting Beijing.
Chinese response
Commenting on Trump's remarks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing here that there were more than 24 million (2.4 crore) Covid-19 cases during Trump's tenure, and the death toll exceeded more than 410,000.
"Trump repeatedly ignored the facts and tried to shirk his responsibilities of failing to respond to the epidemic and tried to divert people’s attention," Wang said.
"We believe the American people have a fair judgement as to who should be held accountable. It is those hypocritical politicians who ignored people’s lives and health should be held accountable," he said.
Trump persisted with the allegations against China for failing to control the virus at home and letting it spread to the world when the coronavirus spread like wildfire in the US in 2020 and later.
While China persistently denied the allegation pointing to the conclusion of the WHO probe which visited the WIV early this year that it is "most unlikely" from the lab, the suspicions resurfaced with recent reports that some of the staff of the WIV lab fell sick well before China officially admitted the spread of the coronavirus in Wuhan in December 2019.
Pandemic origin
Also, the Wall Street Journal reported on May 24 that six miners fell sick with a mysterious illness akin to coronavirus in April 2012 after entering the mine located in the outskirts of a village deep in the mountains of southwest China which top researchers of the WIV investigated.
Later, White House coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt said, "we need to get to the bottom" of the origins of the pandemic pathogen and the WHO and China need to do more to provide definitive answers for the global community.
"We need a completely transparent process from China,” Slavitt told the coronavirus task force briefing.
Also Dr Anthony Fauci, Chief Advisor to US President Joe Biden, said "many of us" feel like Covid-19 was a natural occurrence, but "we don't know 100 per cent" and it is imperative to investigate.