China’s state media allegedly fabricated a Swiss biologist and quoted him claiming that the United States pressured the WHO into investigating the Wuhan lab leak theory.
As reported by the Daily Mail, the People’s Daily, China Daily and CGTN television station all quoted the “biologist,” Wilson Edwards.
However, all stations conveniently deleted the content after the Swiss Embassy said it had no records of him as a citizen, and called for the Chinese media outlets to remove the posts.
This isn’t the first time China pushed claims that the U.S. pressured the WHO to investigate, insisting that a leak would have been “extremely unlikely.”
Edwards was quoted by Chinese media calling the investigation a “political tool” and saying the “international scientific community” was “disappointed” in the U.S.
The People’s Daily said Edwards told them: “Unfortunately, Washington’s re-entry has brought geopolitical competition to the science-spearheaded world body.”
China Daily cited a Facebook post, quoting Edwards saying: “as a biologist, I’ve witnessed in consternation over the past months how the origin-tracing of Covid-19 was politicized.”
CGTN said Edwards claimed he was under “enormous pressure” and “intimidation” from the U.S. after voicing support for the joint WHO-Chinese investigation which concluded the lab leak was unlikely.
The television station also reported Edwards quoted an unnamed WHO source: “The U.S. is so obsessed with attacking China on the origin-tracing issue that it is reluctant to open its eyes to the data and findings.”
The Edwards persona had Facebook and Twitter accounts, both of which have been deleted.
“If you exist, we would like to meet you!” the embassy wrote in a tweet.
