US origins tracing report ironic, politicized: media

BEIJING -- The US report on the COVID-19 origins, conducted by its intelligence community, is ironic and politicized, the South China Morning Post reported Sunday, citing a Chinese expert.

"The fact that the report was done by intelligence departments instead of medical institutions is already ironic, and it is also clear who wants to politicize these problems," Vice Director of China's National Health Commission Zeng Yixin said in an interview with China's national television on Sunday, according to the South China Morning Post.

Origins tracing is a scientific matter and the Chinese government has always supported a scientific approach, Zeng said in the interview.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence of the United States Friday released a summary of the intelligence community assessment on COVID-19 origins, which does not rule out either natural exposure or laboratory accident as the origins of SARS-CoV-2.

"The issue has become one of the major flashpoints in the already strained relationship between the two countries," the South China Morning Post said.