China rejects lab leak, claims COVID came from America

Amid the ongoing claims about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, China this week claimed the deadly virus may have begun in the U.S.

China’s State Council Information Office released a white paper on Wednesday that seemed to be a response to suggestions that the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Trump administration has recently doubled down on the issue, as the White House launched a COVID-19 website in April.

BREAKING: The White House just updated the COVID gov website to officially outline how COVID originated from a Chinese lab leak.

The updated site also exposes Fauci’s attempt to cover it all up. pic.twitter.com/uGXfcypsTW

— Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) April 18, 2025

“The US government, instead of facing squarely its failure in response to Covid-19 and reflecting on its shortcomings, has tried to shift the blame and divert people’s attention by shamelessly politicizing SARS-CoV-2 origins tracing,” the document stated.

new white paper from china’s state council information office: “substantial evidence suggested the covid-19 might have emerged in the united states earlier than its officially-claimed timeline, and earlier than the outbreak in china.”

sure, jan pic.twitter.com/dWxqQpfbHY

— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) April 30, 2025

“A thorough and in-depth investigation into the origins of the virus should be conducted in the United States. The United States should respond to the reasonable concern of the international community and give a responsible answer to the world,” Chinese officials said.

“Substantial evidence suggested that COVID-19 might have emerged in the United States earlier than its officially claimed timeline, and earlier than the outbreak in China,” the report added.

The Chinese government said the US should not continue to “pretend to be deaf and dumb.”

“The US has made China the primary scapegoat for its own mismanaged COVID-19 response. The US government’s indifference and delayed actions wasted the precious time China had secured for the global fight against the pandemic,” the white paper declared, going on to claim that outbreaks of respiratory disease in the U.S. from May to October 2019 were actually COVID cases.

“This suggests that the virus existed in the US before the first official case was identified,” the white paper said.

“The US should cease from shifting blame and evading responsibility, stop finding external excuses for its internal malaise, and genuinely reflect on and overhaul its public health policies,” the Chinese government concluded. “The US cannot continue to turn a deaf ear to the numerous questions over its conduct.”

The new White House webpage states: “A lab-related incident involving gain-of-function research is the most likely origin of COVID-19.”

“Current government mechanisms for overseeing this dangerous gain-of-function research are incomplete, severely convoluted, and lack global applicability,” a section of the site reads.