The collapse of lab-leak theory is imminent

The Wuhan lab-leak theory, or the US administration's attempt to focus the scientific research into the origins of the novel coronavirus on China, was first propounded by previous US president Donald Trump at a White House media conference in April 2020. Questioned about his claim by a journalist, Trump said he has seen the evidence presented by the United States intelligence community but will not talk about it.

Later, Trump began using racist slurs such as the "Wuhan virus", "China virus" and "Kung Flu" to stigmatize China. Trump's utterances were not only a gross violation of the World Health Organization's principle of not naming a virus after any country, nationality or ethnic group, but also a breach of the basic norms of international relations.

The mainstream US media and the international community have mostly treated the lab-leak theory as a conspiracy theory. Despite that, it seems to have picked up steam again in recent months. Seeing this as an opportunity for his political comeback, Trump tried to incite people against China at a rally in Ohio last month.

Feeling the pressure of a belligerent Trump, US President Joe Biden directed the intelligence agencies, through a statement on May 26, to "redouble their efforts" to determine the cause of the pandemic within three months.

"As of today, the U.S. Intelligence Community has 'coalesced around two likely scenarios' but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question. Here is their current position: 'while two elements in the Intelligence Community lean toward the (human contact) scenario and one leans more toward the (lab leak scenario)－each with low or moderate confidence－the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other," Biden said in the statement.

Since the novel coronavirus has caused widespread mayhem globally, it is absolutely necessary to identify its origin. But who gets to find the answer to the question, science or intelligence?

The US approach seems leaning overwhelmingly toward the latter, which puts a big question mark on its credibility. And that's precisely why the Chinese government is opposed to opening up the Wuhan lab again for any "investigation" after the WHO-organized research report released in March deemed the possibility of a lab leak "extremely unlikely".

It is the US intelligence community, which comprises 16 agencies, that has revived the lab-leak theory. On June 8, 2021, The Wall Street Journal said the initial serious focus on the Wuhan lab came from a report of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, one of several national research laboratories under the US Department of Energy, in May 2020.

The problem is that the authors of this report are not really scientists at the laboratory, or currently not involved in research there. Instead, they are intelligence agents in its "Z Division", the intelligence arm of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The report was picked up by the State Department, run by Mike Pompeo at the time. Pompeo in turn apparently asked then deputy national security advisor Mathew Pottinger to launch a vilification campaign against China.

Not surprisingly, most of those in the US behind the lab-leak theory are right-wing, "Fox News-trained" politicians, some of whom would readily embrace ridiculous conspiracy theories－for example, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley.

Science to intelligence is like God to Caesar. "Render… unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." But the US intelligence community is bent not only on acting like God but also doing God's job.

It is because of their evil design that the US politicians have chosen to hype up the lab-leak theory despite the mounting scientific evidence that it holds no water. Scientific research says the theory is bunkum.

In fact, The Washington Post reported on July 6 that suspected novel coronavirus cases were reported from Italy as early as September 2019, and from France in November 2019－both before the first three suspected cases were detected in Wuhan in November 2019, as the US intelligence community claims.

Science or intelligence, that is the fundamental question in the fight against this vicious virus that has wreaked havoc around the globe. Rather than being aimed at finding the answer to an urgent scientific question, the US intelligence community's approach seems to be perpetuating "Trumped-up" falsehoods to fulfill the administration's domestic political and geopolitical goals.

Therefore, it should be summarily rejected by the international community.

The author is a professor at the University of International Business and Economics and a research fellow at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the UIBE. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.