"CHINA has taken full advantage of the West" claims Bournemouth East MP, Tobias Ellwood. 

The chair of the Defence Select Committee said he believes “the fog of Covid-19 has allowed China to advance its own agenda” whilst the rest of the world battles the fall-out of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Mr Ellwood appeared in a television interview to discuss the need to determine the origins of the global coronavirus outbreak. 

“We can’t wait decades [to find out the origins] because there’s a likelihood that we could see another pandemic again and we need to be better prepared for this.

“There are still big questions facing China at the moment and the world recognises there’s been a cover-up” said Mr Ellwood. 

Discussing the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Ellwood stated that though most scientists believe China’s original claim that the virus came from a bat he said: “No scientist, I don’t think, has found an example of this in bats or indeed any other animal that matches the genetic makeup of Covid-19 which casts doubt over that theory.

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“We now have the US Intelligence reports pointing to lab technicians working at that lab of virology, treated for Covid back in November 2019.”

In the months that followed the initial outbreak, the international community raced to produce a vaccine whilst the World Health Organisation started investigations into the virus’ origins - something the Bournemouth East MP has criticised. 

“China has taken full advantage of the West being slightly risk adverse here and I talk about international institutions and China has done very well to promote its own people to lead these institutions.

“The reason why the World Health Organisation doesn’t ask as many questions as it should do is because there are too many Chinese leaders at the top of that organisation and like I said, it needs like minded countries - Britain, the US and other nations indeed - to step forward and say we need to do better than this” said Mr Ellwood.

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He finished the interview stating:

“The fog of Covid-19 has allowed China to advance its own agenda.

"We’ve seen that with the Uighur muslim population and we’ve seen it in Hong Kong as well - it promoting its one belt, one road programmes as well - the rest of the world needs to step up and work together. 

“There’s a new attitude towards China but there’s not a strategy and that’s where we need to go next.”