China has dismissed claims made by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic was “more likely” the result of a laboratory leak than natural transmission. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning reiterated that a joint expert team from China and the WHO had concluded the lab-leak theory to be extremely unlikely after conducting field visits to Wuhan laboratories.
“This conclusion has been widely recognised by the international and scientific communities,” Mao said on Monday. She also called on the United States to stop “politicising and instrumentalising the issue of origin-tracing” and urged Washington to respond to “legitimate concerns of the international community.”
Read more: WHO Urges China to Share More COVID-19 Data
The CIA’s new assessment came after John Ratcliffe was confirmed as the CIA director during Donald Trump’s second White House administration. A CIA spokesperson said the agency now assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the pandemic is more likely than a natural origin, though no previous determination had been made on this issue.
The debate over COVID-19’s origins continues to spark tensions, with Beijing accusing the US of shifting blame and smearing other countries, further complicating global efforts to uncover the truth.
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