Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, posted on Twitter that the U.S. Army could have brought the COVID-19, or coronavirus, to China and that the virus may not have originated in Wuhan as previously thought. 

Zhao, who has over 300,000 followers on Twitter, which is surprising considering China has banned the social network. He has been a very vocal supporter of the Chinese government and his conspiracy theory has obviously become a rallying point for the Communist government as they are rapidly trying to shift the blame elsewhere. 

Zhao’s rant is tied to the testimony of Robert Redfield, the director for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while speaking to a Congressional committee on March 11. 

During his testimony, Redfield said some deaths in the U.S. that were attributed to the flu were later identified as cases of COVID-19. However, Redfield didn’t specify when those people died or over what time period. Regardless, Zhao pounced on that line of his testimony for his theory, while not offering any further evidence for the claim.

“CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation!” 

Zhao’s claims are based on the fact that numerous U.S. Army athletes took part in the World Military Games held in Wuhan back in October.

One of the things that debunk this theory is that if the virus had been brought by American personnel, the incubation time is a well-known two weeks. And it took two months for the first cases to appear. 

Chinese scientist Zhong Nanshan said that “the infection was first spotted in China but the virus may not have originated in China.” Zhao told reporters last week that “no conclusion has been reached yet on the origin of the virus.” However, Wuhan has had more cases of Covid-19 and more fatalities than anywhere else in the world.