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China Briefing
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Wang Xiangwei
Wang Xiangwei

China Briefing | China should allow a Covid-19 leak theory probe at Wuhan lab – if US does the same at Fort Detrick

  • If Beijing plays defensive it risks feeding Washington’s narrative that China has something to hide. Far better to go on the offensive
  • It is natural for the world to demand a definitive answer as to the origins of the coronavirus. For that, a hard look at not only China, but the US and the rest of the world, is needed

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Personnel at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick. Photo: AFP
Wang Xiangwei
US President Joe Biden’s recent decision to order spies to investigate the origins in China of the Covid-19 pandemic has opened up a new front in the battle between Washington and Beijing. 

Biden’s statement, on May 26, was framed to suggest that he had ordered US intelligence agencies to determine whether the virus originated in animals and spread to humans or whether it was the result of a lab accident – and to report back to him within 90 days. However, its actual effect has been to put the spotlight on something that until recently had been dismissed by the world’s leading scientists as a fringe conspiracy theory.

Since then, US politicians and mainstream media have pushed the narrative that China is hiding information regarding the origins of the pandemic, particularly relating to the Wuhan Institute of Virology that specialises in coronavirus research and is located in the city where the first case of the virus was reported.

Beijing has reacted furiously, accusing Washington of politicising the pandemic to stigmatise China and urging an international investigation into similar facilities in the United States, particularly the military lab at Fort Detrick, which studies high-level pathogens including Ebola and was reported to have shut temporarily for safety issues in 2019.

01:56

WHO ends Covid-19 mission in Wuhan, says lab leak ‘extremely unlikely’

WHO ends Covid-19 mission in Wuhan, says lab leak ‘extremely unlikely’
US media reports have indicated that the lab, formally known as the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), was also involved in the development of the drug Remdesivir which was touted by former US president Donald Trump and is used in the emergency treatment of Covid-19 patients.
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