Chinese Government Lashes Out at GOP COVID Origin Report

The Chinese government on Tuesday lashed out at a GOP report that doubles down on the idea that the coronavirus pandemic resulted from a leak from a Wuhan virology lab, calling the claims “concocted lies and distorted facts.”

“What the relevant US congressmen have done smears and slanders China in pursuit of political gains. We express categorical opposition to and strong condemnation of such despicable acts that have no moral bottom line,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement released on its website.

The findings from the House Foreign Affairs Committee were shared Monday by Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who accused the Chinese Communist Party of engaging in the “greatest cover-up in human history.”

"They were playing with fire," McCaul said. "They were genetically manipulating at the lab this gain-of-function that was taking place.”

McCaul also called for Congress to pass legislation sanctioning scientists at the Wuhan lab and CCP officials who obstructed efforts to respond to the pandemic.

"Now is the time to use all of the tools the U.S. government has to continue to root out the full truth of how this virus came to be,” McCaul said.

“That includes subpoenaing Peter Daszak to appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to answer the many questions his inconsistent — and in some instances outright and knowingly inaccurate — statements have raised. It also includes Congress passing legislation to sanction scientists at the WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology] and CCP [Chinese Communist Party] officials who participated in this coverup. This was the greatest coverup of all time and has caused the deaths of more than four million people around the world, and people must be held responsible.”

The report pointed to the October 2019 World Military Games in Wuhan as “one of the earliest super spreader events” of the pandemic and said the novel coronavirus emerged from the Wuhan lab in late August or early September, with China covering it up.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry also called for an international inquiry into the U.S. Army’s Fort Detrick in Maryland.