Australian intelligence agencies questioned Monday the United States theory that links the origin of the coronavirus pandemic to a laboratory in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus originated, given the lack of intelligence material collected by Washington.
The accusations, which have raised concerns among senior officials of the Asian giant over the possibility that the situation could lead to the elimination of wild animal markets, are based on material in the public domain, according to information from the local newspaper ‘The Sydney Morning Herald ‘.
The 15-page dossier to which Canberra has had access through the international intelligence information exchange group ‘Five Eyes’, which in turn includes the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and New Zealand, is mainly based on media information and contains very little intelligence information.
The words of Australian Intelligence, which debunk the American theory, came after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reassured on Sunday that there is “extensive evidence” that the pandemic originated in a Chinese laboratory. . However, it does not provide any data or evidence in this regard.
Several Australian Intelligence officers have stressed that no evidence has yet been presented to suggest that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the source of the pandemic.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said in turn that they lack evidence to support this. “We have nothing to indicate that this is the source,” he asserted.
The Government has expressed concern that this theory is hampering efforts to open an independent investigation into the origin of the pandemic, an issue that has led to increased tension between Canberra and Beijing.
