Elon Musk’s recent comments on Twitter about the origin of COVID-19 have drawn a warning from the Chinese government, which implied that the Tesla CEO’s remarks could damage the company’s relationship with the country. This warning comes just hours after the U.S. Energy Department assessed with “low confidence” that the virus likely originated in a Chinese lab.
In response to one user’s allegation that Dr. Anthony Fauci funded gain-of-function research at a Wuhan lab, Musk tweeted his agreement, adding in a separate tweet that “so few know this.”
He did it via a pass-through organization (EcoHealth)
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2023
However, the Chinese government has rejected the COVID-19 lab leak assessment as having “no credibility whatsoever.”
China is Tesla’s second-largest market after the U.S., and the majority of Musk’s net worth comes from his shares in the electric car brand. CNBC reports that a recent Chinese state-media headline questioning if Musk is “smashing China’s pot” is akin the idiom “to bite the hand that feeds you.”
Meanwhile, the FBI has become the latest federal agency to acknowledge the possibility of a lab accident resulting in the COVID pandemic. As a result, online conspiracy theories have surged, with people using the reports to dismiss expert advice on masks and vaccines, according to The Associated Press.
While there is no consensus within the broader U.S. intelligence community on the exact origins of COVID-19, the U.S. has called on China to be more transparent about the information it has.
