Zhao Lijian, China's combative foreign ministry spokesperson, suggested in spring 2020 that U.S. military athletes brought COVID-19 to Wuhan, the central Chinese city that was ground zero for the pandemic.
The United States expressed outrage at the assertion, which is not supported by any public evidence, and Zhao's colleagues did not step up to support him.
Fourteen months later, when Zhao resurfaced the idea, his boss Hua Chunying and the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece newspaper joined in, calling on the United States to "release the data" on the athletes and open up a military lab near Washington for investigation.