US diplomats in China underwent anal swab testing for Covid-19, a State Department spokesman confirmed on Thursday, adding that a protest was filed with China’s Foreign Ministry.
The United States has received assurances from China that the tests were done in error and that diplomatic personnel were exempt from this specific test requirement, the spokesman said.
“The Department is committed to ensuring the safety and protection of American diplomats and their families, preserving their dignity, in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, as well as other relevant provisions of diplomatic law,” said the spokesman.
The story was first reported by The Washington Post.
However, Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, said at a news conference on Thursday that he had checked with his colleagues and, as far as he knew, “China has never asked US diplomats stationed in China. to do anal swab tests. “
Some health experts say anal smear tests are more accurate than nasal and oral smears to detect traces of viruses.
Anal smears may be more effective because traces of the virus remain in the stool longer than in the respiratory tract, Li Tongzeng, a respiratory disease doctor in Beijing, told Chinese state television last month.
Before the Lunar New Year holidays earlier this month, some Chinese cities used samples of anal smears on people to detect potential infections during intensive examinations after a series of regional outbreaks.
In mainland China, 89,864 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed since the outbreak began, while the death toll has remained unchanged for some time at 4,636 people, according to data from the country’s National Health Commission.
Relations between China and the United States were strained under former President Donald Trump, who criticized the world’s second largest economy in terms of trade, the outbreak of the pandemic, Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong protesters and its Uighur Muslim minority .
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On Wednesday, President Joe Biden’s nominee for director of the CIA, former ambassador William Burns, 64, told a Senate committee that he saw competition with China – and against his “adversary and predatory” leadership – as the key to US national security.
Biden spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping by phone for the first time since he took office earlier this month.
The White House said in a statement at the time that Biden had raised “fundamental concerns” about Beijing’s “coercive and unfair economic practices, repression in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang and increasingly aggressive actions in the region, including in relation to Taiwan. “
The statement also said that the two leaders discussed combating the Covid-19 pandemic and the “shared challenges” of climate change and global health security.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Eric Baculinao contributed.