China’s Foreign Ministry said the theory was an attempt to smear China.
China said Monday that studies into the origins of COVID-19 «should not be politicized» after a new assessment led to fresh scrutiny into a possible laboratory accident in late 2019 in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, pointed to the March 2021 findings of a joint WHO-China report that called the lab leak theory «extremely unlikely.» That verdict was «a science-based, authoritative conclusion,» she said at a regular press briefing in Beijing.
The DOE, which oversees U.S. national laboratories, was previously undecided about the virus’s origins. It now joins the FBI’s own «moderate confidence» assessment as only the second agency to side with the lab leak theory. Four other agencies still lean toward natural transmission as the most likely explanation for the initial outbreak, while two remain undecided.
The WHO-China report published almost two years ago was the only authoritative assessment the United Nations health agency was able to produce about the start of the pandemic. Beijing appointed half the researchers on the mission, restricted the team’s access to critical data, and blocked WHO attempts to conduct a phase-two study that included a review of Wuhan’s surroundings.
Beijing’s decisions went some way toward undermining the report’s eventual findings, which were largely dismissed by American officials. As a result, the phase-one mission report lacked «extensive recognition from the international community,» contrary to China’s claim.
