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After this weekend’s report that the U.S. Department of Energy now believes a lab leak is the most likely source of the COVID-19 pandemic that brought the world to a standstill from 2020 to 2021, a new focus on China and its role in the virus has started to become mainstream again.

But the Chinese government, run by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is not thrilled with the new report, and they are very desperate to deflect and discredit the new findings.

In a new statement to reporters, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning, accused the U.S. of “smearing” China and touted the highly-criticized WHO-Chinese investigation into the source of the pandemic.

“The origins-tracing of SARS-CoV-2 is about science and should not be politicized. China has always supported and participated in global science-based origins-tracing,” Mao said Monday. “‘A laboratory origin of the pandemic was considered to be extremely unlikely’ is a science-based, authoritative conclusion reached by the experts of the WHO-China joint mission after field trips to the lab in Wuhan and in-depth communication with researchers. It was accurately recorded in the mission’s report and has received extensive recognition from the international community.”

“Certain parties should stop rehashing the “lab leak” narrative, stop smearing China and stop politicizing origins-tracing,” Mao continued.

China’s dismissal comes one day after the U.S. Department of Energy joined the FBI in finding that an accidental lab leak was the most likely source of the COVID-19 outbreak, though it made the assessment with “low confidence.”

The U.S. intelligence community has been extremely hesitant to back the lab leak theory for some time, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan maintained in a CNN appearance Sunday that the intelligence community was still divided on the subject.

“There is a variety of views in the intelligence community,” he said in the interview. “Some elements in the intelligence community have reached conclusions on one side, some on the other. A number of them have said they just don’t have enough information to be sure.”

But China’s denial comes as Republicans are gearing up investigation after investigation into several issues, and it appears there is a desire among some of them for an investigation into this, as well.

More evidence continues to mount that COVID came from the Wuhan lab.

We’ve uncovered emails showing Dr. Fauci was warned that the virus looked man-made & came from a lab, but he may have acted to cover it up.

Why?

We need answers & accountability. https://t.co/uw0iOhrqcs

— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) February 26, 2023

Making matters worse is the arrogant confidence displayed by members of the media in attempting to cast Republicans as racists and conspiracy theorists over the source of the pandemic. Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post was snidely dismissive of a statement by Ted Cruz about the origin of the virus and the media’s inability to accept anything other than the Chinese government’s answer on it.

I fear @tedcruz missed the scientific animation in the video that shows how it is virtually impossible for this virus jump from the lab. Or the many interviews with actual scientists. We deal in facts, and viewers can judge for themselves. https://t.co/TprMnaHSZL

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) May 1, 2020

The outright animosity that was shown to Republicans and conservatives from both Democratic politicians and members of the press only goes to further Republican resolve to investigate the issue, both in order to get the real answers to the question and to push back against those attacks. In particular, the refusal of the media to accept that there was any other source other than what the WHO and China said is quite troubling, as the best-case scenario for such behavior is outright hostility to any idea that Republicans have.

The worst-case scenario is that they are beholden to the Chinese government in some way.

The Chinese government’s denial of the U.S. Department of Energy’s report is one thing – that’s to be expected. What remains to be seen is how the Democrats and the media respond. Many will ignore their previous subjective positions and act as if everything is normal. Several will double down and continue to attack Republicans as highly-politicized conspiracy theorists.

Some may have enough integrity to admit they were wrong. But that is a dying breed of journalist.