'INTENTIONAL': Chinese defector's shock theory over Covid origins
A Chinese defector has suggested the Covid-19 pandemic began after the virus was potentially leaked amongst participants of the military games in Wuhan months before the deadly outbreak was confirmed.
Speaking to Sky News journalist Sharri Markson for her new documentary What Really Happened in Wuhan, defector and democracy campaigner Wei Jingsheng said the Military World Games in October, which saw thousands of athletes from around the world head to the central Chinese city, was likely the first superspreader event.
“I thought that the Chinese government would take this opportunity to spread the virus during the Military Games, as many foreigners would show up there,” he said.
Wei claims he was aware of Chinese authorities experimenting with "strange biological weapons", a tip off from a government source, and tried to warn the US but was unsuccessful.
Multiple athletes from around the world later reported sickness and symptoms consistent with Covid-19.
Last month the the US's Republican Foreign Affairs Committee released a report claiming Beijing was rushing to cover up the virus's spread around the time of the military games.
"When they realised what happened, Chinese Communist Party officials and scientists at the WIV began frantically covering up the leak," Republican Rep. Michael McCaul said.
"But their coverup was too late — the virus was already spreading throughout the megacity of Wuhan."
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China has routinely pointed to overseas, including Italy, France and the US, where it says the virus was detected long before it reported its first official cases in December 2019. Wei's theory provides explanation for such cases.
The Communist Party of China has become incensed over what it believes a concerted effort from the West to smear China when it comes to the investigation of the origins of Covid.
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Beijing has even suggested it was the US who imported the virus to Wuhan during the military games, calling for investigations into its Fort Detrick facility.
Former US president Donald Trump also spoke with Markson for the documentary and said a mountain of evidence suggested it was clear the virus had been leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
He said he was unsure however if the virus was intentionally spread or whether it was an accidental leak by scientists.
Initially criticised for his soft approach with China, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus surprisingly questioned the findings of a joint mission into the origins of the virus earlier this year calling on more to be done to investigate the lab leak theory and called for a new team of experts in the process.
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