China Rebuts US on COVID Lab-Leak Theory: ‘Pandemic Shouldn’t Be Politicized’

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said the theory had previously been considered by international experts and concluded that it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus leaked from a Chinese laboratory. He said this is a science-based, official conclusion reached by experts from the WHO-China joint mission following a field visit to the laboratory in Wuhan and intensive communication with researchers.

“This was accurately recorded in the mission report and has received wide recognition from the international community,” she said.

Mao said, “Origin-tracing of SARS-CoV-2 is about science and should not be politicized. China has always supported and participated in global science-based origin-tracing.”

Mao’s response contrasts with the latest assessment by the US Department of Energy (USDE) that the coronavirus mostly leaked from the bio lab in Wuhan. CNN reported on Sunday that the USDE assessed in an intelligence report that it had “low confidence” that the COVID-19 virus was accidentally released from a lab in Wuhan.

A low-confidence assessment generally means that the information received is not reliable enough or too fragmented to make more definitive analytical decisions or that not enough information is available to draw more robust conclusions, it said.

The controversial lab-leak theory first emerged early in the pandemic and was promoted by then US President Donald Trump.

China has rejected a claim that the virus may have escaped from a laboratory, calling it a smear, and suggested the coronavirus may have entered the country in a food shipment from another country.

Given the massive human toll of the pandemic, most scientists think that understanding how and where the virus originated is key to preventing it from happening again.

(with inputs from agencies)