WASHINGTON, January 26. /TASS/. Washington should stop making false accusations against other countries and disclose information about the activities of US biological laboratories worldwide, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the United States Liu Pengyu told TASS, commenting on the reports that the US CIA leans toward the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from a virus leak at a laboratory in Wuhan.
The diplomat emphasized that the United States "should immediately stop falsely accusing and vilifying other countries and cease shifting blame." In addition, he stated that the US needs to "respond as soon as possible to the justified concerns of the international community, provide the World Health Organization (WHO) with early data regarding alleged cases of contamination, disclose information about Fort Detrick and its biological laboratories around the world, and give a responsible explanation to people globally."
In 2021, the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that the WHO should consider theories suggesting the leak of the coronavirus from the US military laboratory at Fort Detrick, Maryland, and similar institutions. Fort Detrick is home to the Walter Reed Army Research Institute, which operates under the Pentagon and conducts biomedical research, including studies of infectious diseases.
The New York Times reported earlier that the CIA had previously stated for several years that it lacked sufficient data to determine whether the virus had passed from animal to human naturally or as a result of a laboratory leak. According to the newspaper's sources, the change in the CIA's position is not based on new intelligence but rather on a closer examination of the information already available.
The study began under the administration of former US President Joe Biden, and its results were made public by the new CIA Director, John Ratcliffe. He had previously called for China to be "punished" for concealing the origin of COVID-19 and the circumstances of the virus's spread. According to The Wall Street Journal, although the CIA announced that it now considers a laboratory leak to be the most likely cause of the new coronavirus pandemic, that conclusion remains uncertain.