China on Tuesday slammed the US for politicising the issue of the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic after the US Energy Department concluded with “low confidence” that the pandemic had originated from a lab leak in China.
Chinese Rebuttal
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during her regular press conference on Tuesday that Beijing has been “open and transparent” regarding the origins of COVID-19 and has “shared information and data” on the outbreak with the international community “in a timely manner.”
She stated that China is the only country that has invited WHO experts “more than once,” to “come into the country to conduct joint origins study.” Mao added that China has “shared more data and research findings” on the pandemic’s origins study than any other country, “making [an] important contribution to global origins-tracing.”
#FBI Director Wray confirmed that the Bureau has assessed that the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from a lab incident in Wuhan, China. pic.twitter.com/LcBVNU7vmO
— FBI (@FBI) March 1, 2023
The Chinese official said the US should “respond to the world’s questions and concerns over Fort Detrick and its military and biological labs across the world.”
The spokesperson concluded that “by politicising the issue, the US will not succeed in discrediting China” and will instead “only hurt” its “own credibility.”
Recent US Comments
The U.S. is committed to a #PandemicAccord which will vastly improve the global health architecture for preventing, preparing for, and responding to future pandemic emergencies. Read more from our opening statement at the World Health Organization meeting: https://t.co/XYaLrr0OPd
— Department of State (@StateDept) February 28, 2023
China’s backlash also follows recent comments from FBI Director Christopher Wray, who said Tuesday that the agency has assessed that a laboratory leak in Wuhan was the likely cause of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” Wray told Fox News. “Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab,” he said.
He added that the agency has specialists who focus on “the dangers of biological threats, which include things like novel viruses like COVID, and the concerns that they [are] in the wrong hands [of] some bad guys, a hostile nation state, a terrorist, a criminal.”
Just in: In case there was any remaining doubt that the US intelligence community is actively promoting the COVID lab leak theory, FBI Director Christopher Wray has now voiced his support for the theory.pic.twitter.com/W1fdfeje8x
— Michael P Senger (@MichaelPSenger) March 1, 2023
Past Comments
Wray’s comments follow a Wall Street Journal report on Sunday claiming that the US Energy Department has assessed with “low confidence” and “weak” evidence that the pandemic originated in a Chinese lab.