China has repeated its assertion the theory that COVID-19 originated from a Chinese laboratory is “a politically motivated lie,” after the WHO recommended continued investigations this week.
“The lab leak theory is totally a lie concocted by anti-China forces for political purposes, which has nothing to do with science,” the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a daily briefing on Friday (June 10).
“We always supported and participated in science-based global virus tracing, but we firmly opposed any forms of political manipulation,” Zhao said, while attempting to shift the blame to the US, and claiming that Washington was developing the virus as a bioweapon.
The latest round of the war of words over the origin of the pandemic also put a renewed focus on the data from China.