China must be ‘more honest’ on COVID origins [Video]

STORY: Following reports that the U.S. Energy Department concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic likely arose from a leak at a Chinese laboratory, the U.S. ambassador to China on Monday said Beijing needed to be more honest about the origins of the deadly virus.

Nicholas Burns: “If we’re going to do something to strengthen the World Health Organization, then we’re going to have to push China to be more active in it and to, of course, be more honest about what happened three years ago in Wuhan with the origin of the COVID 19 crisis.”

Those words – spoken by video link at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event – come after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Energy made what it described as a “low confidence” judgement in a classified intelligence report that COVID-19 likely arose from a Chinese lab.

China flatly denies that assessment.

Asked to comment on the report, China’s …