China has dismissed renewed speculation that the Covid-19 pandemic originated from a laboratory leak in Wuhan, following reports that Germany’s BND intelligence agency gathered plausible evidence supporting the theory.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning, speaking in Beijing on Thursday, warned against political posturing and urged that discussions on the virus’s origins be left to scientists.

She cited an earlier World Health Organization, WHO, investigation that largely ruled out the lab leak theory in 2021, though the agency has since stated that all possibilities remain open.

The controversy resurfaced after German newspapers—Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and Die Zeit—reported that the BND and Germany’s Chancellery had sought scientific analysis of new findings.

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The reports suggest that the SARS-CoV-2 virus may have accidentally spread from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where research on corona viruses was conducted.

While the German intelligence findings remain unpublished, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung noted that not all experts reviewing the data were convinced. The alternative theory, which suggests the virus emerged naturally like the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, remains widely debated.

The WHO has repeatedly called on Beijing to release more pandemic-related data, with the latest request made as recently as December.

NAN