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RMIT University Professor Joe Siracusa says Washington has been “drunk with anti-Chinese bashing this last week” following statements issued from the White House concerning the origins of COVID-19.

The White House has been forced to backtrack on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s suggestion that the coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab, saying it did not have enough evidence to support his claims.

“The question for Pompeo is did it escape that lab some other way or was it accidental, intentional etc,” Mr Siracusa told Sky News.

“I highly doubt it was intentional, I mean the Chinese economy has taken a real hit on this one, they’re going to have zero growth this year which is their worst year in 50 years since the cultural revolution,” he said.

“Seventeen intelligence agencies in America – say there is no evidence according to the scientists that the coronavirus was man-made or genetically modified in that lab.

“Right now in the short term the dissonance about China and whether it developed in the lab and whether the Chinese communist party concealed the departure of the coronavirus, that’s going to dominate American politics.”