China on Wednesday dismissed U.S. speculation that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from the virus leaking from a Chinese laboratory.
Responding to comments from FBI Director Christopher Wray, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the involvement of the U.S. intelligence community was evidence enough of the “politicization of origin tracing.”
“By rehashing the lab leak theory, the U.S. will not succeed in discrediting China, and instead, it will only hurt its own credibility,” Mao said.
“We urge the U.S. to respect science and facts … stop turning origin tracing into something about politics andintelligence,” she said.
We urge the U.S. to respect science and facts … stop turning origin tracing into something about politics and intelligence
In an interview with Fox News that aired Tuesday, Wray said, “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in (central China’s) Wuhan.”
“Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab,” Wray said.
On Tuesday, Mao pushed back at a report from the U.S. Department of Energy that assessed with “low confidence” that the virus that was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019 and had leaked from a nearby government laboratory.
The Associated Press has previously reported that the Chinese government was strictly controlling research into the origin of the pandemic that has killed more than 6.8 million people worldwide, clamping down on some work and promoting fringe theories that it could have come from outside the country.
Some scientists are open to the lab-leak theory, but many scientists believe the virus came from animals, mutated, and jumped to people – as has happened in the past with viruses.
Experts say the true origin of the pandemic may not be known for many years – if ever
