China resurfaces false COVID-19 origin theory linked to Fort Detrick

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs repeated its assertion this week that the U.S. should open biological research facilities at Ford Detrick in Maryland for inspection, a claim that re-emerged as officials in Beijing face mounting scrutiny over the possibility that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from a lab accident in Wuhan.

"If the U.S. really attaches importance to transparency, then when can it invite WHO experts to visit Fort Detrick?" the spokesman said at a press briefing posted on Twitter. "China has invited WHO experts in for two rounds of origin-tracing study and the WHO experts have also visited biosafety labs including the [Wuhan Institute of Virology]." Wang referenced Fort Detrick just days after another Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, Zhao Lijian, made similar remarks, stating the military base was "full of suspicion." The military base houses portions of the U.S. biological defense program. Chinese officials have pushed false claims that COVID-19 originated in the U.S. as far back as March 2020, in an apparent effort to deflect international pressure over Beijing’s handling of the pandemic. Wang likened calls among U.S. lawmakers to investigate the Wuhan lab to claims in the early 2000s that Iraq was housing weapons of mass destruction, which later proved to be inaccurate.