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US Let China Eavesdrop on Mike Pompeo's Phone Talk With Ministers From Five Eyes Bloc, Media Claims

© REUTERS / OCTAVIO JONESFormer US secretary of state Mike Pompeo speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, 27 February 2021.
Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, 27 February 2021.  - Sputnik International, 1920, 28.03.2021
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Last month, the new administration of the United States demanded Beijing surrender all data on the COVID-19 pandemic.

The US government deliberately called UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab using an insecure line to let Beijing eavesdrop on a conversation about the origins of COVID-19, The Mail on Sunday reported, citing sources in Washington.

Then-US secretary Mike Pompeo called Dominic Raab in December to inform his UK colleague that he plans to suggest that the coronavirus pandemic spread after a leak from a laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The call also included the foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, according to the source.

“We did it on an open phone to ensure the Chinese could hear it. We were sending a message – we wanted to tell the Chinese. They have been prevaricating from day one, refusing to give us or you Brits any information day after day. So the Secretary of State, based on the frustration between the State Department and our closest allies by the end of the year, wanted to send a clear message,” they said.

This Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020, photo released by Xinhua News Agency, shows medical workers in protective suits at a coronavirus detection lab in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province. The fresh national figures for the disease that emerged in China in December came as the number of viral infections soared mostly in and around the southeastern city of Daegu, where they were linked to a local church and a hospital. - Sputnik International, 1920, 26.03.2021
Coronavirus Likely ‘Escaped’ From Wuhan Lab, Ex-CDC Chief Claims
The Washington source said that the UK Foreign Secretary had been “very supportive” during the phone call. A UK government source, however, told the outlet that Dominic Raab merely 'listened as Pompeo set out what he was planning to do', without endorsing his actions.

In January, two weeks after the phone call, Pompeo claimed that since at least 2016, the Wuhan Institute of Virology scientists had studied a bat coronavirus which is reported to be similar to the COVID-19 virus. He also claimed that despite presenting itself as a civilian laboratory, it has collaborated on secret projects with the Chinese military.

Beijing then responded by suggesting the US Army may have spread the virus in the city during the 2019 Military World Games.

Peter Ben Embarek, right, gestures as Peter Daszak, left, approaches to bump fists with him before they leave the hotel with other members of a World Health Organization team for another day of field visit in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021 - Sputnik International, 1920, 26.02.2021
Asia
WHO Probing Another Wuhan Wet Market for COVID-19 Origins, Reports Say

In April last year, the WHO released a statement saying that all available evidence suggests SARS-CoV-2 is of animal origin and not man-made.

A WHO expert team, which investigated several sites in Wuhan, which are suspected of being the original source of COVID-19 pandemic, including a wet market and the BSL-4 high-security lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, wrapped up a month-long research trip to the city in February. The investigators came to the conclusion that a leak of the virus from the lab was unlikely.

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