BEIJING/GENEVA ¨C Zhao Lijian, China¡¯s combative foreign ministry spokesperson, suggested in spring 2020 that U.S. military athletes brought COVID-19 to Wuhan, the central Chinese city that was ground zero for the pandemic.
The United States expressed outrage at the assertion, which is not supported by any public evidence, and Zhao¡¯s colleagues did not step up to support him.
Fourteen months later, when Zhao resurfaced the idea, his boss Hua Chunying and the ruling Communist Party¡¯s mouthpiece newspaper joined in, calling on the United States to ¡°release the data¡± on the athletes and open up a military lab near Washington for investigation.
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