Tag: US

  • UK, US, Other Countries Tell Nationals To Leave Ukraine

    UK, US, Other Countries Tell Nationals To Leave Ukraine

    Britain on Friday urged its nationals in Ukraine to “leave now while commercial means are still available” amid fears about an escalation of the crisis on the Russia/Ukraine border.

    The Foreign Office “now advises against all travel to Ukraine. British nationals in Ukraine should leave now while commercial means are still available”, it said in an update on its website.

    Also on Friday, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan called on Americans to immediately leave Ukraine, warning a Russian attack “is likely to begin with aerial bombing and missile attacks that could obviously kill civilians.”

    The United States also updated its travel advisory on Ukraine to a level 4, the highest in its four-tier system, on Thursday. The U.S. Department of State urged Americans not to travel to Ukraine “due to the increased threats of Russian military action and COVID-19.”

    Americans currently in Ukraine were told to leave immediately via private or commercial means.

    The U.S. travel advisory also stated that the U.S. government will be unable to evacuate Americans if Russian military action occurs in Ukraine.

    The White House issued a warning Friday that any U.S. citizens still in Ukraine should leave in the next “24 to 48 hours.”

    Several EU countries have also asked their nationals to leave Ukraine, notably Belgium, Estonia, and Lithuania.

    Belgium on Saturday advised its nationals to leave Ukraine.

    Belgium joins the US and several European countries, who have called on their citizens in Ukraine to leave the country for fear war breaks out.

    “Nationals who are currently in Ukraine and whose presence is not strictly necessary in the country are strongly advised to leave the country,” the Belgian foreign ministry said on its website.

    It said it strongly advised against travel to the country, adding that an evacuation could not be guaranteed.

    The ministry said that in case of a “sudden deterioration, communication links including internet and telephone lines could be seriously affected” and air links hampered.

    The European Union has told non-essential staff from its diplomatic mission in Ukraine to leave the country but has not issued an evacuation order.

    AFP

  • FG Collaborating With US on Possible Extradition of Abba Kyari – AGF, Malami

    FG Collaborating With US on Possible Extradition of Abba Kyari – AGF, Malami

    The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), says the United States Government and the Nigerian Government are discussing the possible extradition of the suspended Head of the Intelligence Response Team, DCP Abba Kyari, for his alleged role in a $1m scam allegedly perpetrated by alleged international Internet fraudster Ramon Abbas, aka, Hushpuppi and five others.

    The AGF also said reasonable grounds for suspicion have been established against Kyari.

    In July 2019, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had revealed how Kyari allegedly collaborated with Hushpuppi, a self-confessed international fraudster, to jail one of the latter’s associates, “after a dispute over a $1.1 million scam on Qatari business people”.

    The suspended police officer had, however, denied the allegation, claiming that his “hands are clean”.

    In August 2021, Usman Baba, inspector-general of police, received the report of a panel set up to probe the bribery allegation against Kyari.

    Days later, Muhammad Dingyadi, minister of police affairs, said the panel report on Kyari had been submitted to Malami.

    Speaking on the report on Monday, the attorney-general, in an interview on Channels Television, said the panel has established “reasonable ground for suspicion” which could lead Kyari’s extradition.

    “There are a lot of issues that are ongoing, inclusive of the possibility of consideration for extradition and associated things. That is where the collaboration element of it comes into play in respect of all the two cases,” he said.

    Asked if there is a possibility of extradition, the minister said: “there could be a need or perhaps the possibility of making such request and they are looking into it.”

    Asked if the extradition request has been made, Malami said discussions on the matter are ongoing.

    “As far as I’m concerned, the parties are discussing, the parties are collaborating and there is an exchange of correspondence from the perspective of investigation, from the perspective of extradition, and associated things,” he said.

    “You can’t find someone guilty but perhaps the reasonable ground for suspicion can be established, which would translate to prosecution.

    “That is what we are talking of — reasonable grounds for suspicion. Reasonable grounds for suspicion has been established; that will eventually translate to the possibility of prosecution and eventually conviction if indeed at the end of the day, one is adjudged guilty by the court of law.

    “The position now is that there is prima facie reasonable ground for suspicion that has been considered from the perspective of prosecution, and for extradition if the need for so doing arises. That is what is unfolding in terms of international collaboration.”

  • US To Begin ‘No-Interview’ Visa Renewal In Nigeria, Lists Conditions

    US To Begin ‘No-Interview’ Visa Renewal In Nigeria, Lists Conditions

    The US Mission has announced that it will commence a no-interview visa renewal program in Nigeria.

    After the launch of the initiative, it will be evaluated based on fraud and workload factors before possible scaling and expansion and will commence in Lagos this month.

    The US mission in a statement on its official website explained that the initiative is part of its continuous commitment to expand and innovate consular services despite the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “The U.S. Mission will expand visa services to assist non-immigrant visa applicants in Nigeria who qualify to renew their visa.

    “This new application procedure will begin in February at the U.S. Consulate in Lagos and will be extended shortly thereafter to the U.S. Embassy in Abuja.

    “The number of qualified applicants who can apply using the new procedures will be limited initially,” the statement on the US Embassy read in part.

    Conditions for qualification for the non-interview visa renewal include application for a B1/B2, F, M, J (academic only), H, L or C1/D (combined only) visa.

    Other conditions are listed below:

    Your previous visa was issued in Nigeria;

    Your previous visa is in the same classification as your current application;

    Your previous visa was a full validity, multiple entry visa;

    Your previous visa expired within the last 24 months or will expire in the next 3 months from the date of application;

    You have all your passports covering the entire period since receiving the previous visa and the passport with the most recent visa;

    You have never been arrested or convicted of any crime or offense in the United States, even if you later received a waiver or pardon; and

    You have never worked without authorization or remained beyond your permitted time in the United States.

    Applicants who meet these conditions can start their application immediately.

    Processing times for the program are expected to be up to two months and applicants will not be able to retrieve their passports during that time.

  • The  US  Silent War Against Civilians  In Somalia

    The US Silent War Against Civilians In Somalia

    By Micheal Itsede

    Since 2006, the United States has shown scant regard and refused responsibility for its secret air bombardments in Somalia in which many civilians have lost their lives and hundreds others maimed and made homeless.

    Also capable in this atrocity is the grave and conspiratorial silence of THE international community and global media. which have failed to beam its searchlight on the atrocities of the US military in Somalia.

    The Somalia air strikes according to the US government are part of a military campaign to increase security in Somalia by degrading al Shabaab and the Islamic State.

    The terrorist group is said to have been active in Somalia since 2006, maintains influence in many areas of the country, and, according to AFRICOM, remains “resilient” despite several years of US intervention and billions of dollars spent.

    However a report by Amnesty International last year described the US military’s secret air war in Somalia without justification a “violation of international humanitarian law”

    Irrespective of the outcry of Amnesty International the United States has continued in its show of military might in poor Somalia in what might be described as a dedication to a scorched earth policy to completely ruin Somalia.

    Where humanitarian assistance would have done the US has chosen to visit long suffering Somalia with its deadly assenal of bombs and missiles.

    In the last decade and a half US bombs have rained on Somalia relentlessly killing more civilians than combatants and the world has kept silent.

    Since the beginning of 2021 the
    US Africa Command (AFRICOM) has conducted hundreds of air strikes in its fight against Al-Shabaab, but has only admitted to killing civilians in a handful of strikes.

    However, the fact as reported by independent humanitarian groups working in Somalia indicates the contrary, civilians together with non combatants are being sent to their early graves by US strikes.

    “The evidence is stacking up and it’s pretty damning. Not only does AFRICOM utterly fail at its mission to report civilian casualties in Somalia, but it doesn’t seem to care about the fate of the numerous families it has completely torn apart,” said Deprose Muchena, Amnesty International’s Director for East and Southern Africa, recently.

    He noted that Amnesty International has documented several cases of the USA’s escalating air war on Somalia, where the AFRICOM thinks it can simply smear its civilian victims as ‘terrorists,’ no questions asked.

    This to say the list is unconscionable and calls for global condemnation and recriminations, the situation calls for an independent enquiry by the United Nations.

    A situation whereby a global military power can freely unleash terror on innocent civilians without accountability under the guise of fighting terrorists should have no place in the modern world. In any case the US should hold itself accountable in line with international laws and its own rules of military engagement.

    Civilians should not be labeled terrorists and indiscriminately bombed. This cover up should not be allowed to continue, the global community must raise its voice against the atrocities been committed against a peaceful population by a foreign power.

    In February this year Amnesty International said it found no evidence that some individuals killed and injured by US air strikes were members of Al-Shabaab or directly involved in hostilities.

    To establish US culpability in the atrocities Amnesty International interviewed the victims’ relatives, community members and colleagues; analysed satellite images, photo and video evidence from the scene of the strikes; and identified the US munitions used.

    “Nothing can excuse flouting the laws of war. Any US response to Al-Shabaab attacks must distinguish between fighters and civilians and take all feasible precautions to avoid harm to civilians,” said Abdullahi Hassan, Amnesty International’s Somalia Researcher.

    It is imperative that the US which has made itself the global policeman of the be held to account.

    The US military should not be allowed to continue to paint its civilian victims as ‘terrorists’ while leaving grieving families to their faith and the victim been made to suffer the twin tragedy of untimely death and defamation.

    Somali remains one of the poorest nations in the world as a result frequent and prolong draughts which has turned its citizens to hungry destitutes.

    Ironically while the country suffer under the weight of extreme poverty the US is expending billions of dollars to prosecute a war against a handful Al-Shabaab militants holed up in the country. Funds which could have turned the fortunes of the country around instead of the ungovernable hell hole US strikes have turned the country into.

    The global community must rise up and do more to demand justice and accountability from the US in its constant bombardments which has killed so many Somalian civilians.

  • US Removes Nigeria From Religious Violators’ List

    US Removes Nigeria From Religious Violators’ List

    US has removed Nigeria from the list of countries “engaging in violation of religious freedom”.

    US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, made this known in a statement on Wednesday.

    Blinken made the announcement ahead of his visit to Nigeria.

    He added that the American government had blacklisted Russia, China and eight others as Countries of “Particular Concern for having engaged in or tolerated ‘systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

    “The United States will not waiver in its commitment to advocate for freedom of religion or belief for all and in every country. In far too many places around the world, we continue to see governments harass, arrest, threaten, jail, and kill individuals simply for seeking to live their lives in accordance with their beliefs.”

    “This Administration is committed to supporting every individual’s right to freedom of religion or belief, including by confronting and combating violators and abusers of this human right.

    “Each year the Secretary of State has the responsibility to identify governments and non-state actors, who, because of their religious freedom violations, merit designation under the International Religious Freedom Act.

    “I am designating Burma, the People’s Republic of China, Eritrea, Iran, the DPRK, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as Countries of Particular Concern for having engaged in or tolerated “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.

    “I am also placing Algeria, Comoros, Cuba, and Nicaragua on a Special Watch List for governments that have engaged in or tolerated “severe violations of religious freedom.” “Finally, I am designating al-Shabab, Boko Haram, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis, ISIS, ISIS-Greater Sahara, ISIS-West Africa, Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin, and the Taliban as Entities of Particular Concern,”

    In December 2020, the US had listed Nigeria among countries blacklisted for violating religious freedom.

  • ENDSARS: US Tasks FG, Lagos Govt. to act on Panel Report

    ENDSARS: US Tasks FG, Lagos Govt. to act on Panel Report

    United States has called on both Lagos and Federal Governments to respond to the report submitted by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry on the ENDSARS protest.

    The judicial body investigated petitions on Police brutality as well as Army’s invasion and shooting at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020 during End SARS protests.

    The panel chairman, Justice Doris Okuwobi (retired) submitted the report at the Lagos House, Ikeja, on Monday.

    Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu received the findings, recommendations and set up a four-member committee.

    The team led by Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN), will come up with a White Paper in two weeks.

    Sanwo-Olu promised that the state government’s action would be guided by the law and in the public interest.

    In a statement on Tuesday, the US Mission in Nigeria said America awaits the response from President Muhammadu Buhari government and Lagos authorities.

    The Embassy noted that official actions are part of a process that represents an important mechanism of accountability regarding the EndSARS protests and events at the toll gate.

    “Those events led to serious allegations against some members of the security forces”, the statement reads.

    “We look forward to the Lagos State and federal governments taking suitable measures to address those alleged abuses as well as the grievances of the victims and their families.”

  • US Task FG to Particularly Use the Super Tucano in Northern Region

    US Task FG to Particularly Use the Super Tucano in Northern Region

    The United States Government says the Federal Government is expected to deploy the Super Tucano aircraft only in the northern part of the country where Boko Haram terrorists have engaged the Nigerian state in a decade-long insurgency killing thousands and displacing millions.

    This, therefore, precludes the possibility of the Federal Government deploying the security equipment in the South-East despite the designation of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra as a terrorist organisation and the setting up of the armed Eastern Security Network by IPOB.

    The South-East has been the epicentre of a secessionist agitation threatening to break up the country.

    Briefing journalists earlier in the week, the US Principal Deputy National Security Advisor, Jonathan Finer, at an event attended by the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, said the terms of the agreement during the sale of the 12 Tucano aircraft were explicit.

    Reacting to a question on whether the Tucano fighter planes might be deployed against secessionists in the South-East, Finer said the planes were an important platform for security, particularly in the North, expressing pleasure over the conclusion of the deal.

    Finer said, “We are pleased to deepen our security cooperation with the Nigerian government. I think we made it very clear our expectations about this platform where it would be used and in the right way and we are always raising concerns when we have them and that it’s true with all our security partners around the world.

    “This is an important platform for security, particularly in the North and we are pleased the transaction is finally concluded.”

  • Perspective on today’s US-China situation – Ismail Bashmori

    Perspective on today’s US-China situation – Ismail Bashmori


    Imagine a world where the US, France, Britain, Australia, are no more important than Uzbekistan or Paraguay.

    A world where the World Court might be headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, the World Bank in New Delhi, the United Nations in Jakarta, the IMF in Cairo. A world liberated from the US banking system and the dollar as its reserve currency, so that Washington can no longer tell 200 other countries who they can and can’t trade with.

    A world where an American can be tried for war crimes at the Hague, not just an Iraqi or Liberian or Serb. A world where we don’t hear about a non-Western-made vaccine and grunt to ourselves, Oh, it must be poison.

    A world where we don’t have to immigrate to the same countries that turned ours into hellholes, to work as sales clerks or taxi drivers, or even if we’re brilliantly employed — to drain our brains from our homelands in the best of cases, and use them to reinforce Western riches and supremacy in exchange for a fat paycheck, instead of using them to make our own countries semi-habitable. When I hear that China has built its own Space Station, landed a rover on Mars, ended extreme poverty, built the Earth’s biggest city, dam, telescope, 5G network, highway, air purifier, or whatever the heck it is that will come tomorrow — I feel the same pride as if I were Chinese.

    It’s not happening for all of us, but it’s happening for one of us and that’s a start. There’s got to be such a thing as developing-country nationalism — a common nationalism for all the countries that were colonized and plundered, and remain economically and politically captured by their ex-rulers.

    A nationalism for the Global South. We are too divided, too brainwashed, too fooled and weak — most of us still worship the countries that destroyed us, are non-Western on the outside and Western on the inside, are hating and fearing and buying all the lies about the only one of us that’s made it, and are leaving our countries in droves to let them burn while we “make a better life for ourselves” in the West.


    Do you want to live on a Western-dominated Earth for another 400 years? If you do, keep doing what you’re doing. But I don’t!
    You know what’ll happen for all of us if America’s sick wishes come true and its global thuggery does make China collapse? Nothing. Eternal repetition of the status quo. More enslavement, hijacking of our resources and weak corrupt governments, neo-colonialism, invasion, regime change, sanctions, MISERY. Haven’t we already seen this? Libya, Cuba, Venezuela, Yugoslavia, Belarus, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, the Soviet Union. Rest in peace.

    Even FRANCE and JAPAN for God’s sake. What does the United States do when any other country says NO, or simply becomes too powerful, too good at honest competition? IT CRUSHES IT LIKE A BUG. Japan was a Western-style democracy crawling with US troops, with a US-authored pacifist constitution and almost no military and an extremely pro-US government and populace, and it STILL got crushed when it looked like it would become the #1 economy in the 80s.

    Do Indians really believe that if China goes down, India will be allowed to become a great power? Do they not see that a strong or wealthy India would immediately fall victim to the same despicable US tactics? Don’t make me laugh.


    I remember 10–15 years ago when China was still relatively poor and impotent, and Bush and Obama would talk about China as sweetly as swans. Obama happily had dinner with Xi Jinping in late 2015, called China a crucial partner of the United States, and said the US welcomed China’s rise; it was all horseshit. Today Biden, who was there with Obama in late 2015 as Vice-President, angrily rebukes a reporter who merely said that Biden and Xi were old friends.


    America has taken off its mask. China made it, it wasn’t supposed to make it, so now it must die. What a difference 5 years can make. China went from “crucial partner” to “number one threat.” We should be helping and supporting China to keep climbing to the top, and giving her some serious solidarity as she withstands the new Cold War of Western imperialism. It’s been a long 400 years.

    China is the first non-Western country to even come close to reaching a status of ultimate global importance. She is akin to the the first member of an impoverished family to go to university. That is our family of nations. And when China gets to the top, believe me, it won’t be a repeat of the French, British, or American Empire. Not a single developing country on earth will be worse-off because of China becoming #1. There will be something good in this for all of us, so let’s wake up.

  • Taliban Warns Of Consequences If US Delay Troops Removal in Afghanistan

    Taliban Warns Of Consequences If US Delay Troops Removal in Afghanistan

    The Taliban warned on Monday there would be “consequences” if the United States and its allies extend the presence of troops in Afghanistan beyond next week, as chaos continued to overwhelm Kabul airport.

    The rapid fall of the country to the hardliners last weekend shocked Western nations, coming just two weeks before an August 31 deadline for all troops to fully withdraw from the country.

    Instead, thousands of soldiers have poured back in to manage the frantic airlifting of foreigners and Afghans — many who fear reprisals for working with Western nations — out of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

    “If the US or UK were to seek additional time to continue evacuations — the answer is no. Or there would be consequences,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Sky News on Monday.

    Staying beyond the agreed deadline would be “extending occupation”, he added.

    The rush to leave Kabul has sparked harrowing scenes and killed at least eight people, some crushed to death while at least one person died after falling from a moving plane.

    One Afghan was killed and three others were injured in a dawn firefight on Monday that according to the German military erupted between Afghan guards and unknown assailants.

    German and American troops “participated in further exchange of fire”, the German army said in a statement.

    The Taliban, infamous for an ultra-strict interpretation of sharia law during their initial 1996-2001 rule, have repeatedly vowed a softer version this time.

    – Impossible to meet deadline –

    The Taliban’s victory ended two decades of war, as they took advantage of US President Joe Biden’s decision to exit the country and end America’s longest war.

    Biden has insisted he wants to end the US military presence and the airlifts by August 31.

    But with the European Union and Britain saying it would be impossible to get everyone out by then, Biden is under pressure to extend the deadline.

    Speaking at the White House on Sunday, Biden said talks were under way to explore the possibility of extending the deadline.

    He also acknowledged the tragic scenes at the airport, which have also included babies and children being passed to soldiers over razor-wire fences and men clinging to the outside of departing planes.

    But he said they were part of the cost of departure.

    “There is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and loss and heartbreaking images you see,” he said.

    – ‘Peace and calm’ –

    Biden spoke after the Taliban, who have been holding talks with elders and politicians to set up a government, slammed the evacuation.

    “America, with all its power and facilities… has failed to bring order to the airport,” Taliban official Amir Khan Mutaqi said.

    “There is peace and calm all over the country, but there is chaos only at Kabul airport.”

    In the streets of the capital, the Taliban have indeed enforced a calm of a kind, with their armed forces patrolling the streets and manning checkpoints.

    Visually, they have also been looking to stamp their authority, ensuring the tri-coloured national flag is replaced with their white banner.

    At a roadside in Kabul at the weekend, young men sold Taliban flags, which bear in black text the Muslim proclamation of faith and the regime’s formal name: “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan”.

    “Our goal is to spread the flag of the Islamic Emirate throughout Afghanistan,” said seller Ahmad Shakib, who studies economics at university.

    – Resistance –

    Outside of Kabul, there have been flickers of resistance against the Taliban.

    Some ex-government troops have gathered in the Panjshir Valley, north of the capital — long known as an anti-Taliban bastion.

    The Taliban said Monday their fighters had surrounded resistance forces holed up in the valley, but were looking to negotiate rather than take the fight to them.

    Taliban fighters “are stationed near Panjshir”, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted, saying they had the area surrounded on three sides.

    “The Islamic Emirate is trying to resolve this issue peacefully,” he added.

    The announcement follows scattered reports of clashes overnight, with pro-Taliban social media accounts claiming gunmen were massing, and Afghanistan’s former vice president Amrullah Saleh saying resistance forces were holding strong.

    One of the leaders of the movement in Panjshir, named the National Resistance Front, is the son of famed anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

    The NRF is prepared for a “long-term conflict” but is also still seeking to negotiate with the Taliban about an inclusive government, its spokesman Ali Maisam Nazary told AFP in an interview on the weekend.

    “The conditions for a peace deal with the Taliban are decentralisation, a system that ensures social justice, equality, rights, and freedom for all,” he said.

  • Hostile intention hides in US “support” for WHO

    Hostile intention hides in US “support” for WHO

    By Zhong Sheng, People’s Daily

    Recently, Washington has been frequently showing its “care” and “support” for the WHO, which made a sharp contrast to its habitual indifference to the organization, as well as its past practices of defunding and withdrawing from the organization.

    Is the US really righting its wrongs and sincerely starting to support the work of the WHO?

    Not really. What Washington supports is merely the WHO’s plan for the second phase of the global study into the origins of COVID-19 which lacks objectivity and a spirit of cooperation. The plan echoes with the lab leak hypothesis made by the US, and is a typical example of the White House manipulating the WHO on some important agenda and topics.

    Origin tracing of COVID-19 must be evidence-based, led by experts and free from interference. It is a principle agreed by the international society.

    However, Washington is obviously talking the talk but not walking the walk. It stressed the importance of evidence in origin tracing, but came up with nothing when fabricating the stories of the so-called lab leak in China and the infections of three employees of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). It couldn’t even name the three infected employees.

    The White House claimed that origin tracing should be led by experts, but it employed the intelligence community to find the origins of the virus and oppressed scientists who made objective and rational voices.

    It said origin tracing shall be free from interference, but an origin tracing program by the National Institutes of Health of the US, which spotted antibodies against the novel coronavirus in blood samples collected in the country in January the last year, was halted by high-rank officials in the White House who said the program disturbed the origin tracing studies into China and was not in line with the national security of the US. The blood samples collected before January 2, 2020 were sealed from further testing.

    Such practices exposed not only the habitual double standard of the US in dealing with international affairs, but also its vicious intention to politicize origin tracing and discredit China.

    What the US has done over the past year mirrors the country’s hypocrisy in its so-called “care” and “support” for the WHO.

    Washington turned a deaf ear to the warning of the WHO when COVID-19 just broke out, and declared national emergency over the virus more than 40 days after the WHO sounded alarm. When the number of COVID-19 infections exceeded a million in the US, American politicians even attacked the WHO, saying the pandemic control response by the organization was a failure. At the most critical moment of the fight against the virus, when the WHO was seeing the most urgent need of funding, the White House decided to defund and withdraw from the organization. It also declared that it could even work to set up an alternative to the UN body instead. Such practices were called “a crime against humanity” by editor-in-chief of The Lancet Richard Horton.

    Though the US has been reengaged in the WHO and claiming to support “multilateralism,” it has never abandoned the strategy of “America first” and egoism.

    When the WHO was calling developed countries to offer vaccine support for developing countries, the US was hoarding doses and restricting export of vaccine materials. When the WHO expressed its hope to reinforce global anti-pandemic cooperation, the US was stigmatizing other countries, labeling the virus, politicizing origin tracing and dividing the international society. When the WHO was stressing the importance of quarantining political virus, the US was acting arbitrarily and employing the intelligence community to lead the origin tracing work.

    The US, passing the buck to China, is trying to turn the dangerous virus into a blackmail, said a Russian media outlet.

    The genuine support for the WHO is not embodied in what one says, but what one does. To adopt the most strict, comprehensive and thorough control measures after the outbreak of the pandemic is what shall be done to support the WHO, which plays a leading role in the global fight against the virus.

    And that’s how and what China has done. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed that the high speed and massive scale of China’s moves are rarely seen in the world and praised China’s actions as setting a new benchmark for combating transnational infectious diseases.

    To offer timely assistance when the WHO is in dire need of funding, materials and vaccines is the genuine support for the organization. China has made two batches of donations to the WHO totaling $50 million, and provided massive medical materials for the international society. It was the first country to promise to make its COVID-19 vaccines a global public good when they are developed. So far, the country has offered more than 700 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for the international society. China has always been science-based, professional, serious and responsible on origin tracing, and was the first country to cooperate with the WHO on the global studies of the origins of COVID-19 and achieved science-based conclusions. What China has done defines what shall be done to support the WHO.

    In February the last year, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his gratitude to all the people in China who sacrificed many aspects of their normal lives to prevent the virus from spreading to others.

    However, the US is today trying to coerce the WHO on some important agenda and topics through political manipulation, so as to authenticate that the lab leak hypothesis is true. This is an injustice for the Chinese people who have made huge sacrifice and contribution, and a disgrace in the history of human civilization. China will never accept it.

    Scientific issues shall be resolved with scientific approaches. No matter what the US does to call its coercing practices “care” and “support,” its hostile intention to discredit, oppress, and contain China through politicizing origin tracing will only become clearer and clearer.