BEIJING: China on Thursday slammed a WHO proposal to audit Chinese labs as part of further investigation into the pandemic's origins, with Beijing's vice health minister saying the plan showed "disrespect" and "arrogance towards science".

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Zeng Yixin told reporters he was "extremely surprised" by the proposal outlined by WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday, which included investigations of virus laboratories in China's Wuhan, where the first Covid-19 cases were detected in 2019.