China asks the US to stop "politicizing" the origin of COVID-19 in light of the laboratory leak theory

MADRID, 27 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) -

China has asked the United States on Monday to "stop politicizing" the origin of COVID-19 after a study by the US Department of Energy has come to light that suggests that the virus spread due to an accident in a laboratory. Chinese.

"Certain parties should stop repeating the 'lab leak' narrative, stop smearing China and stop politicizing the tracing of the origins (of COVID-19)," a spokeswoman for the government said at a press conference. Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning.

In this sense, he recalled that Beijing has always supported and participated in the investigations of different countries on the pandemic from the point of view of science. Thus, he has referred to a field mission carried out in 2021 by experts from both China and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The aforementioned investigation, Mao recalled, alluded to the "origin of the virus in a laboratory" being an "extremely unlikely" possibility. "(The text) has received wide recognition from the international community," he concluded.

Beijing's call to Washington comes after the US Department of Energy explained in a report -- published in 2021 by the office of the US Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, and which has been recently updated-- still working with the lab leak hypothesis.

Said document, leaked and collected over the weekend by the newspaper 'The Wall Street Journal', is an evaluation of the secret services that has been delivered to the White House, as well as to several congressmen, and reviewed in light of new US intelligence information.

However, the text acknowledges that other departments and previous reports of the Department of Energy do not align with this conclusion and, therefore, it deserves "little confidence". In this sense, other US agencies attribute the spread of the virus to natural contagion, while there are agencies that have not decided on the matter.

The United States National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, already assured CNN on Sunday that intelligence remains divided on the origin of the virus. "Some members of the intelligence community have reached conclusions on one side and others on the other," he said, thus alluding to the variety of opinions.