A top Chinese diplomat told Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday that the theory that COVID-19 leaked from a laboratory in the city of Wuhan was an “absurd story,” the country’s state media reported... The statement added that Blinken and Yang had discussed other contentious issues between the US and China, including “the deterioration of democratic norms in Hong Kong and the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.” Blinken also called on China to “cease its pressure campaign against Taiwan” and release American and Canadian citizens who have been “wrongfully detained,” the statement said.