New York, Europe Brief News – US President Joe Biden signed a bill that requires declassification of information related to the origins of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
The move poses political risk for the US president, who has a difficult relationship with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
“We need to get to the bottom of Covid-19’s origins … including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” Biden said in a statement. “In implementing this legislation, my administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible.
“I share the Congress’s goal of releasing as much information as possible about the origin” of Covid, he said.
Biden said that in 2021, after taking office, he had “directed the intelligence community to use every tool at its disposal” to investigate the origins of the virus.
That work is “ongoing,” but as much as possible will be released without causing “harm to national security”, he said.
The bill poses political risks for Biden, who is negotiating a difficult relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Beijing vehemently rejects the possibility that a leak during research at the Wuhan lab could have unleashed the global pandemic.
However, much of Congress wants to pursue the theory further. The issue has become a rallying point in particular for Biden’s Republican opponents.
