MESOP NEWS : China State Media Claims COVID Origin Investigation May Be Way to Put Trump in Office

BY JENNI FINK ON 8/25/21 NESWEEK

In an attempt to discredit the U.S. Intelligence Community’s investigation into the origin of COVID-19, The Global Times, a Chinese state-run media outlet, promoted a baseless theory that its goal is to “overthrow” President Joe Biden‘s administration.

Amidst an already strained relationship, China has been heavily critical of the Intelligence Community’s involvement in the origin-finding process, as they aren’t scientists.

On Tuesday, Gao Lei, a Global Times reporter, called it “absurd” to involve intelligence organizations, who he accused of only serving “politics and repeatedly fabricated false information for Washington’s political needs.” Gao added that the investigation may be a “plot to overthrow his administration,” in reference to Biden.

“Is there an ulterior political motive behind these actions of the US intelligence community? Were they to set Biden up so that Trump can return to power, for example?” Gao wrote in the op-ed.

Newsweek reached out to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

Gao offered no hard evidence as to why he believed the COVID-19 origin investigation was intended to help Trump and hurt Biden. He based his theory predominantly on the fact that Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have been supporters of the lab leak theory.

The Global Times attempted to discredit the Intelligence Community’s report on the COVID-19 origin by calling into question whether it’s an attempt to overthrow President Joe Biden. A flag bearing former US President Donald Trump’s likeness is seen during a far-right rally on August 22 in Portland, Oregon.

Gao also pointed to an op-ed Senator Lindsey Graham wrote in June. In it, the senator said the early dismissal of the lab leak theory contributed to Trump’s loss in November. Had the lab leak theory been proven before the election, Graham believes more voters would have supported Trump because they would have been looking for someone to tow a “tougher line against the Chinese communist regime.”

If the lab leak was to be proven, the Global Times op-ed said it would be beneficial to Trump in upcoming elections because it would “mean that Trump and his Republican supporters were right all this time.”

China has staunchly denied the lab was the origin point of the COVID-19 pandemic and has even pushed back on the possibility that the pandemic began in China. Officials have called for investigations into other areas of the world, pointing the finger at countries in Europe and attempting to deflect attention away from China and toward the United States with the theory that Fort Detrick in Maryland may have been the origin point.

Many scientists and the WHO-China joint mission, a group of 25 international and Chinese experts tasked with investigating the origin, consider the lab leak theory to be less likely than the virus developing naturally. However, the lab leak theory gained new recognition after an intelligence report in May found three researchers at a lab in Wuhan, a Chinese city where the virus is believed to have originated, were hospitalized for flu-like symptoms in the fall of 2019.