China: FBI director claims pandemic 'most likely' caused by potential Wuhan lab incident

By Elaine McCallig, ITV News Digital Content Producer

FBI Director Christopher Wray claims the pandemic was "most likely" caused by a "potential lab incident" in China.

"The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan," he told Fox News.

It follows the release of a US Department of Energy report that assessed with “low confidence” that the virus that was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019 leaked from a nearby government laboratory. The report hasn’t been made public and officials in Washington stressed that US agencies are not in agreement on the origin of the virus.

The theory Covid-19 leaked from a lab is a minority view within the intelligence community however, with sources telling CNN the majority believe the virus either occurred naturally or said there is too little evidence to draw conclusions.

A 2021 report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said that the National Intelligence Council and four other unidentified agencies assessed with low confidence that the virus "was most likely caused by natural exposure to an animal infected with it or a close progenitor virus".

Speaking to Fox News, Wray said the FBI employs professionals "who focus specifically on the dangers of biological threats" - which includes viruses such as Covid-19 - and "the threats those could pose".

"Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab that killed millions of Americans," he said.

The FBI's work on the topic continues, he said, and added he there were not "a whole lot of details" he could share that "are not classified".

"I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we're doing, the work that our US government and close foreign partners are doing. And that's unfortunate for everybody," he added.

On Monday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said: “There is not a consensus right now in the US government about exactly how Covid started.

“There is just not an intelligence community consensus.”

A World Health Organisation (WHO) expert group said last year that “key pieces of data” to explain how the pandemic began were still missing. The scientists cited avenues of research that were needed, including studies evaluating the role of wild animals and environmental studies in places where the virus might have first spread.

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'Politicisation of origin tracing'

China has dismissed suggestions that the pandemic was triggered by a lab leak, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning branding the involvement of the US intelligence community evidence of the "politicisation of origin tracing".

Mao insisted that China has been “open and transparent” in the search for the virus’ origins and has “shared the most data and research results on virus tracing and made important contributions to global virus tracing research.”

“By rehashing the lab-leak theory, the US will not succeed in discrediting China, and instead, it will only hurt its own credibility,” Mao said. “We urge the US to respect science and facts... stop turning origin tracing into something about politics and intelligence, and stop disrupting social solidarity and origins cooperation,” she said.

Tensions between US and China

The FBI director's comments come amid heightening tensions between the US and China.

Relations between the two countries have hit their lowest level in years, with both enacting retaliatory tariffs and trading accusations over China’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. China's aggression towards Taiwan, drive to assert control over the South China Sea and the recent flight of a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the US have fuelled lawmakers’ desire to do more to counter Beijing.

On Tuesday, a special House committee dedicated to countering China began its work on with a primetime hearing in which the panel's chairman framed the competition between the US and China as “an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century.”

China hit out at the new committee on Wednesday, demanding its members “discard their ideological bias and zero-sum Cold War mentality.”

Chinese-owned video app TikTok has also been banned from government-issued phones in the US due to security concerns.

On Monday, the White House said it would be giving federal agencies 30 days to delete TikTok from all government-issued mobile devices.

Congress, the White House, US armed forces and more than half of US states had already banned TikTok amid concerns that its parent company, ByteDance, would give user data - such as browsing history and location - to the Chinese government, or push propaganda and misinformation on its behalf.

The European Union's executive branch has temporarily banned TikTok from employee phones, and Denmark and Canada have announced efforts to block TikTok on government-issued phones. The Canadian ban on government-issued phones followed the country's chief information officer finding the app “presents an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security".

China says the bans reveal the United States' insecurities and are an abuse of state power.

Earlier this week China accused the US of “outright bullying and double standards” in levelling what it called “illegal” sanctions upon Chinese companies as part of US actions against Russia’s Wagner Group and related companies and individuals.

The entities were targeted for their role in the war in Ukraine and mercenary activities, including human rights abuses in Africa.

The Treasury and State departments announced the moves in coordinated statements that targeted dozens of Wagner Group affiliates, including some in the Central African Republic and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the president of Russia’s Kalashnikov Concern, the original manufacturer of the AK-47 assault rifle.

The sanctions also hit the Chinese company Changsha Tianyi Space Science and Technology Research Institute Co. Ltd., also known as Spacety China, which has supplied Wagner Group affiliates with satellite imagery of Ukraine that support Wagner’s military operations there. A Luxembourg-based subsidiary of Spacety China was also targeted.

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