China on Monday dismissed the lab leak theory on COVID-19 origins proposed by the CIA, calling it baseless and emphasizing the need for scientific investigation, state media reported.
“The origin of coronavirus is a scientific issue and should be determined by scientists in a scientific spirit. The lab leak is highly unlikely,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning during a press briefing in Beijing.
Mao added: “This is an authoritative scientific conclusion reached by the joint expert team of China and the World Health Organization (WHO) on the basis of on-site visits to relevant labs in Wuhan and in-depth exchanges with relevant scientific researchers.”
The statement came after the CIA, in a new development, backed the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic may have originated from an accidental lab leak in Wuhan, rather than from natural transmission at a wet market.
The first cases of the virus were reported in Wuhan, central China, in December 2019. It subsequently spread worldwide, leading to national lockdowns and causing nearly seven million deaths.
The CIA’s reassessment of the lab leak theory is reportedly based on a closer analysis of existing evidence, including conditions at Wuhan’s high-security laboratories prior to the outbreak, rather than new intelligence.
However, Mao reiterated the findings of the China-WHO joint investigation, which concluded that a lab leak was “highly unlikely,” a determination she said has been “widely recognized by the international community and the scientific community.”
China has consistently rejected claims from Western nations suggesting a lab origin for the pandemic.
“The US should stop politicizing and instrumentalizing the issue of the origin of coronavirus, stop smearing other countries and shifting blame,” Mao said.
She urged Washington to “respond to the reasonable concerns of the international community as soon as possible, proactively share its own data on early suspected cases with the WHO, and clarify doubts about the US biological laboratory, so as to give a responsible explanation to the people of the world.”
-Source: AA
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