On Tuesday, February 28th, FBI Director Christopher Wray publicly announced that the COVID-19 pandemic was likely caused by a lab leak in Wuhan, China. He told Fox News in an interview, “The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan.” He also claimed that the Chinese government was somehow interfering in investigative work the United States was engaging in on the origin of the coronavirus. Western media outlets were quick to highlight Wray’s statements and point the finger at China amidst the ongoing Western propaganda campaign against China. 

Wray’s statement comes days after the US Energy Department released an assessment stating that “with low confidence” COVID may have leaked from a lab. Although they mentioned “low confidence,” the Western media were quick to highlight this assessment to blame China for the outbreak of this virus. It is significant to note that the statements from both the FBI Director and the US Energy Department were backed with no evidence as to what this so-called lab leakage was. This “Chinese lab leak narrative” was also pushed during the Trump administration. At a press conference in April 2020, Trump declared that the administration had evidence showing COVID-19 came from a lab in Wuhan but when asked to provide details he stated, “I can’t tell you that.” 

Despite the FBI and Energy Department claims this week, the White house stated they had no consensus at this time on the COVID origin. National security adviser Jake Sullivan acknowledged on CNN’s “State of the Union” this past Sunday that the intelligence community is divided on the matter, with the majority of reports pointing to zoonotic transfer. It is questionable as to why so many media outlets were quick to highlight and champion claims backed with no proof. 

Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning was quick to fire back at the American hypocrisy, stating, “Based on the poor track record of fraud and deception of the U.S. intelligence community, the conclusions they draw have no credibility whatsoever, we urge the U.S. side to respect science and facts.” Her statement further reveals the lack of evidence the United States had when stating such claims. 

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States has rapidly weaponized the uncertainty the general public possesses about the virus to create propaganda narratives against China. Wang Web, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, in 2021 also called out the American lab leaking theory noting that Washington chose to ignore the conclusion of the China-WHO joint report which stated that the virus is highly unlikely to have leaked from a laboratory. 

In his speech, he declares that it is the United States that needs to be investigated the most since the US was the first to start research in recombinant viruses and that they have conducted more research on coronaviruses than any other country. He stated that the United States has the world’s worst bio-la safety records where many of the unsafe incidents involved coronaviruses. 

Wang added, “We suggest that the U.S. stop slinging mud at others and instead find out what happened in its own labs first.”