China pushes back, claims COVID-19 may have started in US

China has reiterated its claim that COVID-19 may have originated in the US, challenging the US narrative in a newly published white paper detailing Beijing’s pandemic response.

The document was released Wednesday through the state-run Xinhua news agency, shortly after the White House reasserted its belief that the virus stemmed from a laboratory in China.

The Trump administration recently launched a new government website on April 18, outlining its position that the coronavirus leaked from a Chinese lab. The page also criticizes former US President Joe Biden, former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the World Health Organization (WHO) for what it describes as mishandling the early stages of the pandemic.

In its white paper, Beijing accused Washington of politicizing the virus’s origin and referenced a Missouri lawsuit in which China was ordered to pay USD 24 billion for allegedly stockpiling protective medical equipment and covering up the initial outbreak.

China defended its own transparency, insisting it had “shared relevant information with the WHO and the international community in a timely manner,” and pointed to a joint WHO-China study that concluded a lab leak was “extremely unlikely.”

“The US should not continue to ‘pretend to be deaf and dumb,’ but should respond to the legitimate concerns of the international community,” the white paper said.

The Chinese report also claimed there is “substantial evidence” suggesting the virus may have first appeared in the US, potentially even before the official Chinese timeline.

Although the CIA updated its stance in January to say a lab origin in China was more likely than a natural emergence, it did so with “low confidence” and acknowledged that both theories remain viable.

A Chinese health official, quoted in Xinhua, stated that the focus of future virus origin-tracing efforts should now shift to the US.