BEIJING: A Chinese official has suggested that the US army may have brought the deadly coronavirus into China, without providing any evidence to support his eyebrow-raising claim.
Zhao Lijian, a foreign ministry spokesman, made the assertion on Twitter late Thursday, echoing similar conspiracy theories proliferating on Chinese social media that blame the US for the pandemic.
The head of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention has said himself that the source of the virus was wild animals sold at a market in the central city of Wuhan.
But in recent days, Chinese officials and a prominent health expert have claimed that the virus may have originated elsewhere while Beijing has angrily hit back at US officials for calling the disease the “Wuhan virus.”
In his tweet, Zhao posted a video of the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention testifying before Congress that some Americans who were believed to have died from the flu were posthumously diagnosed with the COVID-19 illness.
“CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals?” Zhao tweeted.
“It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!“
Zhao doubled-down on Friday, tweeting an article that he said showed “further evidence that the virus originated in the US.”
The Montreal-based website where the article appears, globalresearch.ca, is replete with conspiracy theories about the September 11 attacks on the United States.
Chinese officials have themselves been accused of attempting to cover up the coronavirus outbreak as police in Wuhan reprimanded and silenced doctors who had raised the alarm about the virus as early as December.
US officials have angered China by linking the virus with the country, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling it the “Wuhan virus.”
The foreign ministry has rejected the term as “despicable” and “disrespecting science.”
More than 130,000 people have been infected by the virus and nearly 5,000 have died across the world so far.
Robert O’Brien, the US national security adviser, insisted on Wednesday that the birthplace of the virus was China.
“This virus did not originate in the United States, it originated in Wuhan,” O’Brien said at the Heritage Foundation think tank.
“Unfortunately, rather than using best practices, this outbreak in Wuhan was covered up,” he said.
He said China had “cost the world community two months to respond” to the epidemic, which has now killed nearly 5,000 people and infected more than 130,000 worldwide.
Had China been more cooperative and allowed foreign experts on the ground earlier, he said, “we could have dramatically curtailed what happened both in China and what is now happening across the world.”
Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang on Thursday called OBrien’s remarks “extremely immoral and also irresponsible.”
Chinese official claims US may have brought virus to China
https://arab.news/9kr8w
Chinese official claims US may have brought virus to China
- The head of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention has said himself that the source of the virus was wild animals sold at a market in the central city of Wuhan
- US officials have angered China by linking the virus with the country, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo calling it the “Wuhan virus”
Trump invites Colombia’s Petro to White House after earlier threat of military action
- Relations between Trump and Petro have been frosty since the Republican returned to the White House in January 2025
WASHINGTON/BOGOTA: Days after threatening Colombia with military action, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said arrangements were being made for the country’s President Gustavo Petro to visit the White House, following a call between the two leaders. Trump and Petro said they discussed relations between the two countries in their first call since the US president on Sunday said that a US military operation focused on Colombia’s government “sounds good” to him. That threat followed Trump ordering the US capture of the president of neighboring Venezuela, who was flown to the US to face drug and weapons charges.
“It was a great honor to speak with the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who called to explain the situation of drugs and other disagreements that we have had. I appreciated his call and tone, and look forward to meeting him in the near future,” Trump wrote on social media.
Trump added “arrangements are being made” for a meeting in Washington between himself and Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, but gave no specific date for a meeting.
“We have spoken by phone for the first time since he became president,” Petro told supporters gathered at a rally in Bogota meant to celebrate Colombia’s sovereignty, adding he had requested a restart of dialogue between the two countries.
A source in Petro’s office told Reuters the call was “cordial” and “respectful.”
Relations between Trump and Petro have been frosty since the Republican returned to the White House in January 2025.
Trump has repeatedly accused the administration of Petro, without evidence, of enabling a steady flow of cocaine into the US, imposing sanctions on the Colombian leader in October.
On Sunday Trump referred to Petro as “a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.”
The US in September had revoked Petro’s visa after he joined a pro-Palestinian demonstration in New York following a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly and called on US soldiers to “disobey the orders of Trump.”
Petro, who has been a vocal opponent of Israel’s war in Gaza, had accused Trump of being “complicit in genocide” in Gaza and called for “criminal proceedings” over US missile attacks on suspected drug-running boats in Caribbean waters.
The Trump administration has carried out more than 30 strikes against suspected drug boats since September, in a campaign that has killed at least 110 people.
