White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki did not deny that President Biden asked for assistance from China’s President Xi on Thursday to trace the origins of COVID-19. White House correspondent Peter Doocy inquired why Biden, after meeting with Xi earlier in the week, requested assistance from the Chinese leader to assist American intelligence agencies trying to find the origins of COVID-19.
Psaki stated that the president’s push to get the Chinese to be more involved and provide more transparency data and information was a great example of this. “We have argued publicly for it, we have argued at every level for it, and the president did speak in his meeting about the importance of transparency, of which this is just an example.”
Psaki insists that Biden’s message was clear when he was asked if he had “asked President Xi” to cooperate with the U.S. intelligence agency-led investigation into origins.
Psaki replied, “Peter. It’s obvious that that’s the thing we want.” “That’s what I’ve been insisting on. I don’t need to read anything more to you from this meeting.” She claimed that the president has spoken publicly about this issue a number of times, but she also stated that it is not a secret that the White House “has been pressing for”
Before the highly anticipated virtual summit meeting, Xi referred back to Biden as an “old friend”. However, the meeting did not yield any significant breakthroughs. Contrary to Xi’s comments, Psaki stated during the briefing that Biden considers him someone he knows for a while and with whom he can have honest relationships.
A senior administration official stated that Biden and Xi had discussed COVID-19 earlier this week and the “importance” of addressing the current pandemic.
The official did not mention whether Biden had discussed the origins the coronavirus virus with Xi. However, he stated that they discussed “the importance of preventing future pandemics” and “the important role transparency plays in addressing global healthcare issues.”
