China accuses Biden of ‘smear campaign’ for demanding new probe into Wuhan lab

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Joe Biden has been accused of carrying out a “smear campaign” against China, after the US president called for a further investigation into the origins of Covid in Wuhan.

China’s embassy in Washington DC issued a statement on Thursday accusing the US of conspiracy theories, and of playing “the old trick of political hype on the origin tracing of COVID-19 in the world”.

“Smear campaign[s] and blame shifting are making a comeback, and the conspiracy theory of ‘lab leak’ is resurfacing,” the embassy wrote.

“Since the outbreak of COVID-19 last year, some political forces have been fixated on political manipulation and blame game, while ignoring their people's urgent need to fight the pandemic and the international demand for cooperation on this front, which has caused a tragic loss of many lives.”

It went on to say that the US investigation would create a “political virus“, and that China was in support of "a comprehensive study of all early cases of COVID-19 found worldwide” – in a subtle reference to US facilities.

It followed the White House saying on Wednesday there were "two likely scenarios" for the origins of Covid, after an initial investigation by the Trump administration was closed by Mr Biden.

"I have now asked the intelligence community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyse information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion,” the US president said, “and to report back to me in 90 days”.

It comes in the wake of reports that staff at Wuhan’s institute of virology (WIV) fell ill toward the end of 2019, as the Wall Street Journal revealed on Sunday.

Before any reports from Wuhan, it was also alleged by conspiracy theorists that Covid was from Wuhan’s virology institute, and was not from human contact with an animal carrying the virus.

On Thursday, the US office for the Director of National Intelligence refused to rule out the theory in a statement saying it did “not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other”, in reference to the “two likely scenarios”.

“Either it emerged naturally from human contact with infected animals or it was a laboratory accident”.