Germany's secret pandemic report: Merkel and China respond
Was the report on the causes of the pandemic kept under lock and key? Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel denies it, and Beijing appeals.
According to media reports, the German foreign intelligence service, the BND, suspected as early as 2020 that the Covid-19 pandemic was caused by an accident in a laboratory in Wuhan. At the time, Angela Merkel served as the Chancellor of Germany and was said to have been informed of the intelligence service's findings.
The newspaper "Tagesspiegel" sought Angela Merkel's response concerning these intelligence findings and accusations of concealing the matter from the public due to political motivations. Merkel's spokeswoman stated that "former Chancellor Dr. Merkel fundamentally rejects the accusations formulated in the question."
From the Wuhan laboratory?
The newspapers "Süddeutsche Zeitung" and "Zeit," along with the Swiss newspaper "Neue Zürcher Zeitung," reported that the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) concluded in 2020 that the virus likely originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. It was claimed that the Chancellery was informed of these findings but chose to keep them confidential.
Angela Merkel's office indicated in a statement to "Tagesspiegel" that to receive answers to substantive queries, inquiries should be directed to the Chancellery, where official documents from Merkel’s tenure are stored.
The German government, currently led by Olaf Scholz, has acknowledged the journalists' findings. However, it stated that it cannot comment on the findings and intelligence activities. In such cases, relevant committees are informed during closed-door sessions.
China speaks out
Following media reports, China called for restraint. "In the matter of coronavirus, China firmly rejects any form of political manoeuvres," said Mao Ning, spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She added that the People's Republic of China believes that scientific issues should be assessed by scientists.
Not only Chinese state officials but also members of the German Parliamentary Control Committee, which is responsible for intelligence services, were surprised by the reports.
"Unfortunately, there is a fundamental problem: we learn about approximately 80% of all scandals, blunders, and highly controversial issues not in the responsible committees, but through the media," said André Hahn, a Left party politician who served on the Committee until the end of 2023.
"In recent years, this has improved somewhat," he admitted. He added that the coronavirus issue was not the focus of the Committee's activities. The Health Committee would address the issue of the virus's origin. "If the government had intelligence on this topic, it was obliged to inform the Parliamentary Control Committee. Whether it then makes it public is another matter," commented the Left party politician.
WHO: This is not the end of the investigation
The spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred to the group of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) who spoke with scientists from relevant laboratories in Wuhan. The group concluded that a virus leak from there is "extremely unlikely," she explained.
According to the WHO, the investigation has not yet been completed, and all hypotheses about the origin of the Sars-CoV-2 virus remain valid. The investigation in 2021 was just the beginning, not the end. In late December 2024, the WHO again called on China to provide data and access to ascertain the origins of Covid-19.
