Covid-19: An independent investigation is good for China

VOICES are increasingly being raised calling for China to be held accountable for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic that is ravaging the world, with 3.5 million people infected so far and close to a quarter million deaths. Economic losses will amount to trillions of United States dollars.

But is China responsible? After all, as China tells it, while the country was the first victim of the coronavirus, it was not its source and not responsible for its spread around the world. In fact, China argues that through its effective containment methods China bought time for the rest of the world to make preparations. But some countries, most notably the US, frittered the time away for domestic political reasons.