China Says US Hurting 'Its Own Credibility' By Rehashing COVID-19 Lab-Leak Theory: 'Respect Science And Facts'

China on Wednesday slammed the U.S. for saying that COVID-19 may have been triggered by a virus that leaked from a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan.

What Happened: Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told the media that the involvement of the U.S. intelligence community was evidence enough of the "politicization of origin tracing."

"By rehashing the lab-leak theory, the U.S. will not succeed in discrediting China, and instead, it will only hurt its own credibility," Mao said.

See Also: US Energy Department Says This Was The Likely Chinese Source Of COVID-19 Pandemic: Report

"We urge the U.S. to respect science and facts … stop turning origin tracing into something about politics and intelligence, and stop disrupting social solidarity and origins cooperation," she added.

U.S. intel chief Christopher Wray in an interview with Fox News said that as per the FBI, the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan.

Also Read: One Million People Could Die From COVID-19 In China Next Year: Report

"I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here … the work that our U.S. government and close foreign partners are doing. And that's unfortunate for everybody," he added. 

On Tuesday, China retorted at a report from the U.S. Energy Department that assessed with "low confidence" that the virus that was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019 leaked from a nearby government laboratory.

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