China responds with fury to US intelligence hunt for Covid-19 lab leak evidence

Name: China rejects WHO plan to revisit Covid-19 lab leak theory
Uploaded: 2021-08-10T11:00:18.000Z
Duration: 1 min 15 s
Description: China rejects WHO plan to revisit Covid-19 lab leak theory

Foreign ministry decries ‘obsession’ with political manipulation over virus origins and demands investigation into Fort Detrick claims

At least 25 million people have signed a petition calling for probe into the US biolab, according to Chinese state media

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A WHO expert team investigating the origins of the Covid-19 coronavirus concluded that it was “highly unlikely” to have come from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology but US intelligence agencies are continuing to look for evidence to support the theory. Photo: AFP

Amber Wangin Beijing

Published: 7:00pm, 10 Aug 2021Updated: 7:00pm, 10 Aug 2021

A report that US intelligence agencies are working through a vast catalogue of genetic data obtained from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in their hunt for the origins of the new coronavirus has met with a furious response from Beijing.

A foreign ministry statement on Monday accused the US of an obsession with political manipulation over the origins of the pandemic, along with a raft of counteraccusations centred on the Fort Detrick Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Maryland.

The ministry spokesperson accused the US intelligence agencies of hyping the “so-called laboratory leak theory” which it described as a “political farce from beginning to end”.

01:15

China rejects WHO plan to revisit Covid-19 lab leak theory

CNN reported on Friday that the US intelligence community had obtained the data, including genetic blueprints drawn from virus samples studied at the Wuhan lab, through unknown means. It is part of a 90-day investigation into the pandemic’s origins ordered by President Joe Biden.

China has repeatedly said that tracing the source of the virus is a complex scientific issue which should be carried out cooperatively by scientists from around the world, the ministry spokesperson said. “But what everyone sees is that the US still ignores science and facts.”

The statement pointed out that the “lab leak” theory had been deemed “extremely unlikely” by the WHO-backed team of experts which reported in March after an investigation with Chinese scientists which included a visit to Wuhan.

A counter “lab leak” theory based around the Fort Detrick facility in the US has been gaining traction in China, thanks to multiple calls – led by foreign ministry officials and diplomats – for an investigation into the Maryland lab as a possible source for the virus.

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