Australia annoyed as U.S. pushes Wuhan lab COVID-19 theory

Australian officials are frustrated that their push for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus is being undermined by the White House, which has sought to link the outbreak to a Chinese lab, government, diplomatic and intelligence sources told Reuters.

Washington’s attack on China has given Beijing room to argue that Australia’s request for an independent inquiry is part of a U.S.-led agenda to blame it for the coronavirus outbreak, the sources said.

Canberra has been caught in a diplomatic squeeze between Washington, its main security ally, and already strained relations with Beijing, it major trading partner, even as its successful handling of the coronavirus has it planning to reopen the economy.

One government source said that officials were working hard to cast the review as open-minded and global, and that the American approach of “let’s get China” wasn’t helping.

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham, responding to criticisms about whether an inquiry would hurt trade with China, sought to underscore Australia’s independence during an interview on ABC radio on Friday.

“We’re not doing this as some sort of lapdog of the United States,” he said. “You’ll see there are some marked differences between some of the things that the Australian Government has said and some of the commentary coming out of the United States and that’s because we take our own analysis, our own evidence, our own advice and we will take this issue through to the World Health Assembly.”

China’s foreign ministry has said the calls for an inquiry are “political manipulation” and said Australia should “give up its ideological prejudices”.