Chris Patten urges UK to investigate origins of coronavirus in China

There is an “overwhelming case” to send a multilateral mission to Wuhan to investigate the coronavirus’s origins and spread, the former British governor to Hong Kong has told Dominic Raab. Chris Patten wrote to the foreign secretary this week to raise his concern about “two issues that will affect us and the rest of the world for some time to come”: the Chinese government’s initial cover-up of the outbreak, and how it has apparently taken advantage of the pandemic to “turn the screws on Hong Kong”.

Patten told Raab he was concerned to see China’s ambassador to the UK engaging in “wolf diplomacy” by denying there had been a cover-up about the origins and early spread of the virus and implying that “respected politicians” in the UK and abroad were “peddling lies and disinformation”. He said there was an overwhelming case in support of “establishing as soon as possible a multilateral expert mission to Wuhan to find out exactly what happened there”.

“Since Chinese communists are adamant that they have nothing to hide, they would presumably welcome such an inquiry,” Patten wrote.

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