China rejects US intelligence report on Covid origins as ‘political and false’

China has slammed a US intelligence review into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, calling it “political and false” while urging Washington to stop attacking China.

On Sunday, the Chinese foreign ministry published a statement firmly opposing the initial findings published in the summary report in August, days after the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a fuller version from a 90-day review ordered by president Joe Biden.

The paper said that, without new information, intelligence agencies would not be able to offer a better judgment on whether the virus emerged via animal-to-human transmission or a lab leak.

The lab-leak theory posits that the virus was spread from a research facility in Wuhan, the city where the contagion was first reported. The theory remains unsubstantiated, and China has repeatedly rejected it.

The paper said goothat China’s cooperation would probably be needed to reach a conclusive assessment on origins, although it emphasised that Beijing continued to “hinder the global investigation”.

Read  more via The Guardian

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