The White House did not answer directly when pressed by two reporters about whether President Joe Biden brought up the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Biden and Xi spoke on the phone for more than two hours Thursday morning, with a readout saying the two discussed “global issues,” including “health security,” but not mentioning the pandemic directly. Two reporters from conservative-leaning outlets asked White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for more details.
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“On the phone today, did President Biden ask President Xi anything about getting to the bottom of the origins of COVID?” Fox News reporter Peter Doocy asked.
Jean-Pierre’s response largely reflected the language in the readout.
“The two presidents did discuss health security, and transparency is a key part of that,” she said. “As we have repeatedly said, the [People’s Republic of China] is not living up to scientific and public health norms for data and information sharing. We have said this before. … The international community — we’ve said this needs more data — they need more information to make clear the determination on the origins of the pandemic.”
When Doocy asked again whether the topic came up during the call, Jean-Pierre said, “The two presidents did discuss health security. That did come up.”
Theories about how the pandemic began have been debated among scientists since COVID-19 emerged nearly three years ago. Some question whether the virus occurred naturally or accidentally leaked from a lab located in China.
A World Health Organization report released in June prompted renewed friction with the Chinese Communist Party after it refused to rule out the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic originated because of a lab leak.
When asked, Biden administration officials have repeatedly said they are pressing China to be more transparent in cooperating with investigations. But the topic rarely comes up when officials aren’t asked directly. A White House-led international COVID-19 summit held in May did not mention how the virus came to be, and a background call with reporters held after Biden’s call with Xi also did not discuss the origins issue.
RealClearPolitics reporter Philip Wegmann noted the discrepancy later in the press briefing.
“I was still just a little confused about the call today,” he said. “You said that the two presidents discussed health security. That’s pretty vague. Did President Biden tell Xi to start cooperating in the investigations into the origins of COVID that has killed at least a million Americans?”
Jean-Pierre responded by saying she’s aware of the death toll and mentioned Biden’s recent bout with the disease before contrasting his handling of the disease with that of former President Donald Trump, saying deaths have fallen 90% since Biden took office.
“That’s not an answer to my question,” Wegmann said. “You can’t tell us whether or not the president pressed Xi to be more cooperative with an investigation?”
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Jean-Pierre again pointed back to the readout.
“I am not going to go beyond the readout that I just gave you,” she said.
