China has dismissed claims that Covid-19 originated in a laboratory, calling it “extremely unlikely,” after the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) suggested the virus was more likely to have come from a lab rather than from natural transmission.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning stated, “The conclusion that a laboratory leak is extremely unlikely was reached by the China-WHO joint expert team following field visits to relevant laboratories in Wuhan.” She added that this conclusion has been widely accepted by both the international and scientific communities.
The CIA’s statement on Saturday suggested that a lab leak was “more likely” than natural transmission. This new assessment followed the confirmation of John Ratcliffe as CIA director under Donald Trump’s second term.
A CIA spokesperson said, “The CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the Covid-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting.” Previously, the agency had not made any determination regarding whether the virus had emerged from a lab or from animals.
In response, Beijing urged the United States to “stop politicizing and instrumentalizing the issue of origin-tracing.” Mao Ning further called on Washington to “stop smearing and shifting the blame to other countries and to address the legitimate concerns of the international community as soon as possible.”
