China has not withheld data from research team

Clinical data contained personal information, and it is against relevant laws and regulations in China to allow such data to be taken to other countries, said Liang Wannian, the team leader of the Chinese side of the China-World Health Organization joint expert team.

The Chinese side had explained the situation to the foreign experts, and after reaching a consensus, the data was made available to the joint expert team during its mission, but the experts could not take photos or make copies of the raw data, he said.