Blinken Slams China's Lack of Transparency Amid Review of COVID-19 Origins

WASHINGTON - The United States renewed its call to "get to the bottom of" the origins of COVID-19, singling out China for bending international organizations to its worldview as the U.S. restores its annual contributions to the World Health Organization.

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the U.S. must "out-compete China and defend the international rules-based order," a priority reflected in the State Department's 2022 budget requests. The top U.S. diplomat slammed China's lack of transparency on the origins of the coronavirus as U.S. President Joe Biden ordered a 90-day review and a fresh intelligence report on the origins of COVID-19. "What we've seen, more than unfortunately, from the PRC (People's Republic of China) since the beginning of this crisis is a failure to meet its basic responsibilities in terms of sharing information and providing access," Blinken said, stopping short of elaborating on what the U.S. would do to pressure China for a full-access investigation.