CHENNAI: In a newly released white paper on its COVID-19 pandemic response, China renewed its assertion that the virus may have originated in the United States, pushing back against recent claims from the US government that the virus emerged from a lab in China.
The white paper, published Wednesday via the state-run Xinhua news agency, comes in direct response to an April 18 announcement by the Trump administration, which launched a COVID-19 website reiterating the theory that the virus originated from a Chinese lab.
The US website, which was launched by the US President in April, had blamed that the origins of the coronavirus on a lab leak in China, had also criticized Democratic former President Joe Biden, former top US health official Anthony Fauci and the World Health Organisation for their roles in managing the pandemic..
However, in the white paper, China accused the US of politicising the origin-tracing issue. It referenced a Missouri court ruling that awarded $24 billion in damages against China, alleging the Chinese government hoarded protective medical supplies and concealed the outbreak in its early stages.
China defended its pandemic response, stating that it had shared information with the WHO and the international community promptly. The white paper emphasised a 2021 joint study by the WHO and China, which concluded that the possibility of a lab leak was “extremely unlikely.”
The Chinese document further criticised the US, saying it should stop ignoring the international community’s legitimate concerns. It claimed there was “substantial evidence” that the virus may have emerged in the US earlier than officially reported, and even before the outbreak in China.
Adding to the ongoing debate, the CIA in January updated its stance, saying a lab leak in China was more likely than natural transmission but admitted it had only "low confidence" in this assessment and considered both scenarios plausible, Reuters reported on Friday.
The white paper quoted an official from China’s National Health Commission, who stated that future origin-tracing efforts should now shift their focus to the US.