China Warns Elon Musk To Stop Supporting Wuhan Leak Story

The Global Times, a news outlet owned by the Chinese Communist Party, warned Twitter CEO Elon Musk against sharing and supporting the theory that COVID-19 originated from a 2019 Wuhan, China lab leak.

The tech billionaire posted tweets that promoted the Wuhan lab leak theory following a U.S. Department of Energy report that called it likely that COVID’s origins can be traced back to the Wuhan lab.

The state-owned Global Times wrote that Musk was “breaking the pot of China,” which is a phrase similar to “biting the hand that feeds you.” The CCP-owned outlet went on to note that Musk’s Tesla has an “expansive factory campus in Shanghai, and China is the electric vehicle manufacturer’s second largest market.”

The media publication suggested Musk’s tweets supportive of the lab leak theory were slanderous and hostile to China. The outlet explained they were warning Musk about his China-related tweets and attacked him for potentially hurting investment into the country. “This warning comes as Chinese officials, both on a high level as well as on a lower level of the government are really to pulling out all the stops and try to attract U.S. investment into China. The directive has come all the way from the top, President Xi Jinping, who has been saying that there should be greater effort to attract more and welcome more foreign capital as well as more foreign investment.”

On Sunday, Musk made headlines after he accused Anthony Fauci, the former Chief Medical Advisor to President Biden, of funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab. Musk alleged Fauci funded gain-of-function “via a pass-through organization (EcoHealth).”

The Twitter and Tesla CEO sarcastically acted surprised when responding to a tweet that reported the U.S. Energy Department’s Wuhan lab theory. “What!? No way,” he wrote.

What!? No way.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2023

With Sunday’s report, the energy department joined the FBI in concluding that COVID-19 could be traced back to Wuhan. The Chinese government has continued to deny any Wuhan leak theory and has pushed a narrative suggesting COVID-19 originated outside of their country’s borders.