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.

All of the left-leaning media outlets, which love to publish anything anti-American, jumped on board and published Zhao’s claims. Sensing a shift, another Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang on Friday stated that there were “varied opinions” on the origin of the virus in the international community.

“China always considers this a scientific question, which should be addressed in a scientific and professional manner,” he said. “We don’t hope to see anyone making an issue out of this to stigmatize other countries,” Geng added. “With COVID-19 developing into a pandemic, the world should come together to fight it instead of leveling accusations and attacks against each other, which is not constructive at all.” Yet, this is exactly what some Chinese officials are doing right now.  

While the Chinese theories are being floated, some American conservatives are being raked over the coals for stating that COVID-19 was a bioweapon that somehow leaked out. The Wuhan Institute of Virology is an institute that is linked to Beijing’s covert bioweapons program. That is a fact; however, the Institute is not the principal bioweapons facility of the Chinese government. The Chinese have denied having bioweapons. 

Many scientists believe that the virus is animal-borne and is similar to viruses that circulate in bats. The Chinese government reported that several of the first cases of COVID-19 had ties to a live animal market, where both seafood and other wildlife were sold as food. This large market has since been closed. The prevailing theory in China, prior to these latest conspiracy rants, was that the disease spread to humans through the eating of an infected animal or by a human coming into contact with a diseased animal’s urine or feces. 

But Twitter, denied to the Chinese people themselves, remains the bastion for Chinese politicians to defend the Communist government… and spread their own conspiracy theories. 

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