China shot back with a wild theory of its own after President Donald Trump revived a highly disputed claim about the origins of COVID-19.
The Chinese State Council Information Office released a 23-page white paper on Wednesday delving into “China’s actions and stance” on the origins, prevention, and control of the respiratory disease that put the world on a years-long lockdown.
The paper asserted that “COVID-19 may have emerged in the U.S. earlier than the U.S. official timeline, and earlier than the outbreak in China,” in an apparent clap back to the White House’s claim that the virus leaked from a lab in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Multiple investigations by intelligence agencies and congressional bodies over the years have failed to pin down a definitive answer on the origins of COVID-19. In January, the CIA said it had “low confidence” in its assessment that the virus more likely emerged from a lab than from nature, as it noted that both scenarios remain plausible.
That hasn’t stopped the Trump administration from wielding the divisive issue as a political wedge.
Earlier this month, the White House overhauled the government’s COVID-19 website to blame the spread of the disease on China and on Dr. Anthony Fauci, former President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser.
“This once more demonstrates the obsessive U.S. determination to politicize virus origins tracing,” China wrote of the website update. “These attempts to manipulate public opinion will never succeed – the scientific community and the international community are increasingly immune to the incessant falsehoods of the U.S. side.”
China argued that it had swiftly coordinated with the World Health Organization and international experts after COVID-19 broke out to address its spread and investigate its origins.
“The U.S. has made China the primary scapegoat for its own mismanaged COVID-19 response,” the paper read. “The U.S. government’s indifference and delayed actions wasted the precious time China had secured for the global fight against the pandemic.”
