China plays to the galleries on COVID-19's origin; mouthpiece hawks US 'black magic' plot

Amid heightened worldwide clamour pertaining to COVID-19's origin and the much-deliberated Wuhan lab leak theory, now, China has come up with its own coronavirus lab leak wherein it has once again raised Fort Detrick, a US military lab, referring to it as a place where SARS-CoV-2's origin must be probed. The past few weeks have witnessed China and its surrogates becoming increasingly belligerent in their counters. Beijing has continued to counter the hypothesis that the virus may have escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, albeit without a modicum of scientific evidence.

China, in its defence, said that the virus' origin has been politicised and the issue should be left solely on scientists. However, when the scientists also came together to ask for the Wuhan lab leak to be properly probed, China shut them down, most notably to the WHO. 

In a presumed effort to play to the galleries back home and peddle propaganda on the topic, a state-affiliated Chinese news agency Xinhua has taken to sharing artwork that depicts the US as a black magic practioner who is mixing and concocting varied theories on the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 contagion. 

The media agency shared the image and wrote, "The black magic of lab-leak conspiracy".

Notably, China has blocked access to Twitter and other mainstream social media, while the regular media is either state-owned or highly regulated and subjected to censorship and punitive action for going against the Chinese Communist Party's line. Given the Xinhua cartoon, it is not improbable to deduce that Beijing has decided to go all-out in its broadside against the Lab leak theory.

WHO-led investigation at Wuhan lab

While few people expected the Chinese Communist Party-led regime to cooperate easily with an authentic probe into COVID-19's origins, none would have imagined the defence tactics now being deployed.

While China claims it was transparent enough while WHO's investigation team's visited the Wuhan Lab, on the other hand, the critics have said if COVID-19 was naturally occurring, it would have left trails and shreds of evidence in the environment, as SARS1 and MERS infection, and that China didn't give the WHO team full access to what was going on over the years with regards to 'gain of function' research.

In fact, WHO's Director-General Tedros criticised Beijing for lack of transparency. Another audit of laboratories in Wuhan was called as part of the next phase of the original investigation, but the Xi Jinping-led administration rejected the proposal later.

China goes rogue after WHO scientists demand detailed probe

Chinese public health officials responded to the WHO demand and said they "did not respect common sense and violated science". China's Foreign Ministry instead called for an investigation into Fort Detrick, a US military lab and claimed the same was the originator. 

Lijian Zhao, a spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry, took to Twitter to state, "If labs are to be investigated, then the WHO experts should go to Fort Detrick. The US should act transparently & responsibly as soon as possible and invite WHO experts for an inquiry into the Fort Detrick lab. Only in this way can truth be revealed to the world."

COVID-19's origins unknown

COVID-19 was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. The coronavirus origin remains a broadly debated topic among scientists and delegates who deem the likelihood of Wuhan lab leak theory more than just something that can be dismissed out of hand.

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