China warns the U.S. should expect a “counterattack” if the country is to blame for the upcoming COVID origin report

According to the Associated Press, China warned that if an intelligence report on the origin of COVID-19 accused communist countries, the United States should expect a “counterattack.”

A theory that COVID-19 may have come from a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China. The disease was first discovered in the region at the end of 2019, causing tensions between the United States, China and the World Health Organization (WHO).President Joe Biden The US intelligence agency was ordered to conduct a 90-day review of “two possible scenarios” in late May, including the laboratory leak theory and another theory that COVID-19 may be transferred from animals to humans.

Fu Cong, director of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: “If they want to accuse China baselessly, they’d better be prepared to accept China’s counterattack.”

White House Press Secretary Jane Passaki It said on Monday that the report is expected to be made public in “a few days.”

The WHO-China joint report released earlier this year stated that laboratory leaks are “extremely unlikely” and most likely to be animal-to-human theories. However, in late March, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “All assumptions are on the table, and comprehensive and further research is needed.”

For more reports from the Associated Press, please see below.

Fu Ying accused the United States of trying to accuse China and politicizing this issue.

He said at a briefing for foreign journalists, “Scapegoat for China cannot whitewash the United States.”

After the release of the WHO-China joint report, China hopes that the investigation will turn to other possibilities. According to the report, the most likely scenario is that the virus was transmitted from a bat to another animal and then infected humans.

China responded to continued speculation about the Wuhan Virus Research Institute leak, suggesting that the virus may have leaked from Fort Detrick. American armies The laboratory in Maryland.

Mr. Fu, Director of the Arms Control Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, denied that China was conducting false propaganda activities.

He said that if other parties insist on pursuing the laboratory leak theory, then the WHO team of researchers should visit Fort Detrick. He described it as a fairness issue because the WHO visited the Wuhan Institute twice.

“If Dr. Tedros believes that we should not rule out the hypothesis of laboratory leaks, then he knows where to go,” Fu said. “He needs to go to a laboratory in the United States.”

China pointed out that the Institute of Infectious Diseases in Fort Detrick has studied the coronavirus and was closed for several months due to violations of safety regulations in 2019-20.