China has dismissed claims that COVID-19 likely originated from a laboratory leak, reiterating that such a scenario is “extremely unlikely.”
This statement came on Monday, January 27, following an assessment by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) suggesting the virus was more likely to have emerged from a lab than through natural transmission.
“The conclusion that a laboratory leak is extremely unlikely was reached by the China-WHO joint expert team based on field visits to relevant laboratories in Wuhan,” said foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning. She added that this conclusion has been widely acknowledged by both the international and scientific communities.
The CIA’s statement, made public on Saturday, indicated that the agency assessed “with low confidence” that a research-related origin of the pandemic was more plausible than a natural origin, citing available reports.
This marked a shift, as the agency had previously not taken a definitive stance on the matter.
The assessment followed the confirmation of John Ratcliffe as CIA director under the second administration of Donald Trump.
In response, Beijing urged the U.S. to “stop politicizing and instrumentalizing the issue of origin-tracing.” Mao called on Washington to cease “smearing and shifting the blame to other countries” and to address the international community’s legitimate concerns.
