The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday dismissed a report from the Wall Street Journal this weekend claiming the U.S. Department of Energy had concluded the Wuhan coronavirus had begun spreading as the result of a laboratory leak in China, insisting that entertaining the theory is akin to “smearing China” and demanding America “stop politicizing origins-tracing.”
The official stance of the Chinese government is that the coronavirus pandemic began as a result of a laboratory leak at a U.S. Army facility in Fort Detrick, Maryland, and Washington hid the spread of the disease by misdiagnosing it as lung injuries caused by e-cigarettes.
Zhao Lijian, the Foreign Ministry spokesman most vocal about spreading this conspiracy theory, was demoted to a low-profile job at the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs in January, an indication that the Communist Party may be changing its attitude towards diplomacy. Mao Ning, Zhao’s replacement at the Foreign Ministry, did not mention the Fort Detrick theory during her remarks on Monday.