‘Stop Defaming China’: Beijing Pushes Back on Energy Department’s Lab-Leak Conclusion

On Monday, China accused the U.S. of politicizing the Covid-19 pandemic, dismissing the Energy Department’s conclusion that the coronavirus likely arose from an unintended laboratory leak.

The Energy Department has concluded based on new intelligence that the pandemic began in a Chinese lab, according to a memo recently provided to the White House and members of Congress, and obtained by the Wall Street Journal. The agency now joins the FBI in preferring the lab-leak theory to the natural-transmission theory.

“Covid tracing is a scientific issue that should not be politicized,” Mao Ning, a Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, said in response to the finding, according to the New York Times. Ning also called on the U.S. to “stop defaming China” by raising the lab-leak theory.

While U.S. intelligence agencies disagree on the probable origins of the virus, China claims to have ruled out the possibility of a laboratory leak. It has also sought to deflect blame by spreading a conspiracy theory that Covid may have been the result of research at a U.S. military lab in Fort Detrick, Md., the latest instance of which came earlier this month.

The National Intelligence Council and four agencies, which officials have declined to identify, still assess with “low confidence” that the virus came about through natural transmission from an infected animal. The Central Intelligence Agency and another agency that officials wouldn’t name remain undecided.

The Energy Department’s conclusion was also reached with “low confidence,” according to the memo, but nevertheless represents a departure from its previous undecided stance.

There is consensus amongst all the agencies that Covid wasn’t the result of a Chinese biological-weapons program.

China’s latest rebuke of the U.S. government comes amidst escalating tensions between the two nations. The U.S. is increasingly concerned that China will supply Russia with weapons and ammunition for use in Ukraine.

Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), an early proponent of the lab-leak theory, explained that the news should only intensify U.S. resolve to scrutinize China.

“[Regarding] China’s lab leak, being proven right doesn’t matter,” Cotton wrote. “What matters is holding the Chinese Community Party accountable so this doesn’t happen again.”

In the House, a new select committee on competition with China was created last month. Additionally, a hearing is set for Tuesday in the House Foreign Affairs Committee over how to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s aggression.