Unlock the publisher’s digest for free
Roula Khalaf, editor-in-chief of the FT, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
The CIA has concluded that Covid-19 likely began as a lab leak in China in a new assessment of the origins of the pandemic that has killed millions.
The US Intelligence Agency said it had concluded with “low confidence” that the Covid-19 virus had leaked from the research facility, in a change from its previous position that there was insufficient information to reach a conclusion.
“The CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the Covid-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reports,” the agency said in a statement Saturday.
“The CIA continues to assess that the research-related and natural origin scenarios of the Covid-19 pandemic remain plausible.”
The US intelligence community – which is made up of 18 agencies – has been evaluating the origin of Covid-19 for four years to determine whether the virus emerged naturally from a wet market in Wuhan or whether it leaked from the Institute of virology of Wuhan in the Chinese city.
The CIA joins the FBI and the Department of Energy in concluding that the virus came from the Wuhan laboratory. But he said he had “low confidence in this judgment” and would “continue to evaluate any credible intelligence reporting or open source information” that might change his assessment.
The new assessment was made public just days after John Ratcliffe was sworn in as CIA director.
In an interview with Breitbart News after being confirmed as President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the intelligence agency, Ratcliffe said he believed intelligence and common sense “dictate that the origins of Covid were a leak to the Wuhan Institute of Virology” and would ensure that “the public is aware that the agency [CIA] will come out of the sidelines.
A US official said Bill Burns, CIA chief during the Biden administration, told the CIA team assessing evidence to take a position on the origin of Covid-19, but did not dictated the outcome.
Burns’ directive came as Jake Sullivan, who has served as national security adviser, ordered the intelligence community to take another look at the origins of the pandemic as Biden’s team prepared to leave its functions.
The US official stressed that the CIA revised its assessment before Ratcliffe was sworn in as the new director.
“I have said from the beginning that Covid probably originated in Wuhan laboratories. Communist China covered it up and the liberal media covered it up for them, said Tom Cotton, the Republican head of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“I am pleased that the CIA concluded in the final days of the Biden administration that the lab leak theory is the most plausible explanation for the origins of Covid, and I commend Director Ratcliffe for keeping his promise to release this conclusion. Now the most important thing is to make China pay for unleashing a plague on the world. »
The Chinese embassy in the United States did not respond to a request for comment.
The new change in the CIA’s assessment comes just over a week after Trump made his first phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping since at least 2021. While many foreign policy experts expected As Trump takes a tough line on China – particularly on trade – in his first week in office, the president has so far held back on tough measures against Beijing.
In an interview with Fox News this week, Trump said that although the tariffs had given him “tremendous leverage” over China, he would “prefer not to have to use it.”
He also signed an executive order extending the deadline for Tiktok’s Chinese owner to divest the popular video app to avoid a ban in the United States.
