American officials declined to say when the testing in Guangzhou would conclude. Those who need further examination in the United States have been sent to the University of Pennsylvania Center for Brain Injury and Repair, where researchers examined the cases from Cuba.
The consulate serves as a busy center for issuing visas for Chinese citizens traveling to the United States. Many of the diplomats are on their first and second postings overseas and have young children who are also being screened if their parents ask.
American officials have suggested that Russia was involved in the targeting of the diplomats in Cuba, and possibly also in Guangzhou, perhaps with the tacit knowledge of the Chinese.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday that China would be willing to help the United States uncover the causes of the mystery illness, saying it took its obligations to protect diplomats seriously.
Global Times, a nationalist state-run Chinese newspaper that enjoys taunting the United States, took Washington to task in an editorial on Friday, saying that Americans needed to look at home before blaming others.
“We recommend that the U.S. should not come to a conclusion too quickly that their consulate employees are attacked by external actors, but should conduct an investigation to look for an internal cause,” the editorial said. The United States should drop its “enemy mentality,” it added.
Diplomats from other countries posted in China had not reported experiencing the “weird disease,” the editorial said.
“This is very strange,” it added. “It’s hard for Chinese people to believe that any foreign organization can conduct this kind of behavior on Chinese soil while avoiding all monitoring and not leaving any clue.”
Source : Nytimes
