The Chinese Embassy in Washington criticized the US intelligence report on the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The statement was published on the website of the diplomatic mission.
“The report, fabricated by the US intelligence community, is scientifically unconvincing. Finding out the origin is a matter of science, this should and can only be done by scientists, not intelligence experts,” the diplomats emphasize.
China strongly disagrees and condemns claims that it is obstructing the investigation and does not want to share information about COVID-19 with the international community, it said in a statement. The diplomatic mission noted that the Chinese authorities provided information available to them and “fully openly and transparently” cooperated with WHO.
According to the Chinese side, the document presented by the intelligence shows that Washington seeks “to follow the wrong path of political manipulation.”
“The report is based on the presumption of guilt on the part of China and is intended only to make him the scapegoat,” the embassy concluded.
The day before, American intelligence published excerpts from a report that it presented to President Joe Biden. The authors of the document concluded that SARS-CoV-2 was not developed as a biological weapon, but could not agree on its origin. Two versions are considered as possible: natural contact with an infected animal and an incident in the laboratory.
At the same time, intelligence officials claim that Beijing continues to obstruct the investigation, as it is afraid of its possible results.
From the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been numerous rumors that it could be caused by a leak from the laboratory of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. WHO experts, who visited China in March, called this version “extremely unlikely” – in their opinion, the coronavirus was most likely transmitted to humans from bats through another animal.
In early August, Republicans from the US House of Representatives released a report that concluded that the coronavirus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan. In doing so, they were based on data from open sources and indirect evidence.
In China, such accusations have been repeatedly denied and called “absolute fable”.