‘Rattled' China knows world is on brink of truth about Covid lab leak – they are desperate to shift blame, say experts
Viscount Matt Ridley and Lord David Alton react to the extraordinary accusation made in a new White Paper released by Beijing's State Council Information Office.
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China has claimed the Covid pandemic may have started in the US
Credit: EPA
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'I think it's almost certainly a response to the web page,' says Viscount Matt Ridley
Credit: Jack Hill/The Times
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'When it comes to disinformation the Chinese Communist Party is in a league of its own,' says Lord David Alton
Credit: PA
Viscount Matt Ridley, a hereditary peer in the House of Lords and science writer, told The Sun: "It smacks of desperation.
"They can feel the net closing in - that it's more and more obvious that it was reckless and pointless experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that caused this.
"The coincidence is bizarre that it should turn up in that city of all places.
"I think it's almost certainly a response to the web page. I think the timing suggests that they are rattled - that they felt they needed to respond to the White House.
"It suggests that they have given up on their theory that it got there on frozen food. That used to be their preferred theory.
"I've read the brief announcement - it seems to be extremely threadbare. There's a lot of faulty logic. We know Covid-19 tests can give false positives."
Lord David Alton, a member of the House of Lords, told The Sun: "When it comes to disinformation the Chinese Communist Party is in a class of its own.
"Over 7 million people died from Covid and millions more have suffered from its consequences.
"All the evidence points to Covid's origins in China.
"They should be held to account through reparations and not allowed to get away with pedalling falsehoods."
It comes after The Sun's explosive Covid lab leak documentary laid bare the mounting evidence and disturbing questions surrounding the virus's emergence in Wuhan - home to China's most secretive bio-research facility.
I was in Oval Office with Trump at start of pandemic - no one was closer to Chinese officials than me & I believe Covid was engineered in lab
Just a few days ago, the US unveiled a bombshell new web page on the origins of Covid, blaming the Wuhan Institute of Virology for unleashing the killer virus.
Now, in a fresh propaganda push, Beijing insists "substantial evidence" shows Covid "might have emerged in the United States earlier than its officially-claimed timeline, and earlier than the outbreak in China".
The document - titled Covid-19 Prevention, Control and Origins Tracing: China's Actions and Stance - was released via China's official Xinhua news agency.
It unashamedly accused the US of "indifference and delayed actions" during the global Covid fight - and of scapegoating China to deflect from its own "mismanaged" response.
It wrote: "The US has made China the primary scapegoat for its own mismanaged COVID-19 response."
The report added that America was 'spreading misinformation' and wasted 'precious time China had secured for the global fight against the pandemic".
It revived Beijing's long-standing claims that it shared information with the world in a "timely manner".
The paper added: 'The US should not continue to 'pretend to be deaf and dumb', but should respond to the legitimate concerns of the international community.'
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