China is willing to conduct joint research with intl experts

Beijing on Wednesday expressed willingness to conduct joint research and analysis with international experts on relevant data to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the remarks at a press briefing in response to reports saying the World Health Organization was finding it difficult to get original data in the study of the origins of COVID-19.

She said the Chinese side had summoned relevant agencies and hundreds of scientists to do their utmost to collect, compile and analyze the data preliminarily.

China had shown raw data, which needed to pay particular attention to WHO experts piece by piece, she added.

She said the international experts have said on several occasions that they have conducted comprehensive and candid discussions on the data issue with the Chinese side.

She noted that as data concerning infectious cases carried a lot of private information that cannot be copied and taken out of China according to the law, adding that international experts had a full understanding of that.

"The origin-tracing of the pandemic should be conducted in many countries and places, rather than limited to one particular area, as pointed out by the joint experts team," Hua said.

"We hope relevant countries, including the United States, can cooperate with the WHO to conduct origin-tracing of COVID-19 in a scientific manner, as China does," she added.