Chinanews.com, June 18th. The US political news website Politico pointed out in a recent report that in 2020, in the absence of evidence, the Trump administration will still hype the new crown virus "laboratory leak theory" as it is. "Diplomatic Offensive".
According to the report, at a press conference on April 30, 2020, Trump had stated that the US government had evidence that “the new crown virus came from the laboratory of the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” but he declined to provide details.
A few days later, then Secretary of State Pompeo said on an ABC program that there was "a lot of evidence" that "the new crown virus came from a laboratory."
However, five former Trump administration officials, including three directly involved in investigating the origin of the epidemic, said that the evidence collected by the government was insufficient to draw relevant conclusions.
When Trump and Pompeo discussed the "laboratory leak theory," officials were still considering supporting evidence that the virus originated from the natural world.
Data map: Former US President Trump.
Internal conversations with the Trump administration regarding the source of the virus revealed that high-level US officials have largely promoted the "laboratory leak theory," although those responsible for investigating the issue have not yet reached a consensus.
According to the report, Pompeo's remarks on the "laboratory leak theory" have aroused doubts in other departments of the US government.
Several officials stated that they had not reviewed convincing reports and evidence to support the hypothesis.
In fact, as early as February 2020, 27 scientists stated in an open letter in the medical journal "The Lancet" that "Scientists from many countries have publicly analyzed the genome of the new coronavirus that caused the epidemic, and concluded that the new coronavirus Overwhelming conclusions derived from wild animals".
The open letter also wrote, "We strongly condemn conspiracy theories that imply that the new crown virus does not originate from nature."
According to two sources, officials believe that even if there is no evidence to conclude, the United States should still promote the "laboratory leak theory" in order to "attack China for improper handling of the epidemic."
The report pointed out that some officials from the National Security Council and the State Department urged the United States to accuse China of "covering up the source of the epidemic," claiming that the virus came from a research institution in Wuhan, and describing this as a "diplomatic offensive."
Now, more than a year later, the Biden administration has once again hyped the "laboratory leak theory" of the new crown virus.
In this regard, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin stated at a regular press conference on June 9 that since the outbreak, we have continuously seen some U.S. politicians and media labelling and stigmatizing the virus and spreading unfounded "experiments". Room Leak Theory", groundless attacks and smears on the traceability research report of the joint expert group between China and the World Health Organization, and the use of intelligence agencies to conduct so-called "investigations."
Wang Wenbin said: "These politicized practices that have increasingly deviated from the purpose of traceability research have not only severely impacted the United States' own anti-epidemic actions and cost the American people a heavy price, but also have an increasingly negative impact on international anti-epidemic cooperation."