China warned ‘be honest’ about coronavirus origins after US found possible Wuhan lab leak

China has been told to “be honest” when it comes to the origins of Covid after a US Department of Energy analysis concluded the virus likely spread after a leak from a Chinese research lab in Wuhan.

US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns has called on Beijing to be more transparent after the Chinese foreign ministry accused unnamed parties of a smear campaign.

“(China needs to) be more honest about what happened three years ago in Wuhan at the origin of the COVID-19 crisis,” Burns said via video link to a US Chamber of Commerce event. on Monday local time.

He said tensions rose after the United States shot down an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon flying over North America earlier this month.

“We are now in this surreal moment where the Chinese, who I think lost the globe debate globally, lost influence and credibility around the world because of what they did, are now blaming us,” said Mr. said Burns.

It’s a bit Orwellian. And it’s a bit frustrating, because I think everyone here knows the truth.’

His comments came after Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning issued a fierce warning to anyone pushing the theory that Covid originated from a laboratory leak.

“Certain parties should stop repeating the ‘lab leak’ narrative, stop smearing China and stop politicizing origin tracing,” he said during a press conference on Monday.

‘The origin of the new coronavirus is a scientific question and should not be politicized.

“A laboratory origin of the pandemic was considered extremely unlikely,” is an authoritative, science-based conclusion reached by experts from the joint WHO-China mission after field trips to the laboratory in Wuhan.

His comments come despite WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus saying more investigation was needed.

In 2021 China refused an effort by the World Health Organization to carry out a second phase of its research. the group has denied abandonment his research amid China’s obstacles.

The Department of Energy, which maintains a group of national laboratories, now joins the FBI in supporting the possibility of a laboratory leak as the possible origin of the virus, though it concluded with “low confidence.”

Four other agencies are still said to favor the ‘natural spill’ theory that the virus escaped via an animal at a nearby meat market. Two agencies, one of which is the CIA, have yet to state a final position.

The change in tone from the Department of Energy is important because the agency is known for its expertise and oversees several US laboratories, some of which conduct biological research.

The FBI concluded in 2021 that the virus leaked from a laboratory, saying it did so with “moderate confidence.” The Department of Energy has reversed course, and has done so with “low confidence,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

While the laboratory leak theory was initially dismissed as conspiracy and xenophobic, a growing number of scientists have come to the idea that the virus may have escaped during an accident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

The research center is less than 10 miles from an animal slaughter market where the first series of human cases clustered. Some experts also claim that Covid’s unique spike protein, which it uses to infect people, shows engineering characteristics.

But others have considered those scenarios unlikely and say there is some indirect evidence that Covid jumped from animals at the Huanan Seafood Market, where animals known to harbor Covid, including raccoon dogs, hedgehogs, rats and squirrels, they were kept in miserable conditions.