Chinese State Newspaper Amplifies Conspiracy Theory That First COVID-19 Patient Was U.S. Cyclist

The Chinese state-run newspaper Global Times has been accused of spreading an unfounded conspiracy theory that a U.S. military cyclist was the source of the novel coronavirus outbreak. On March 25, the English-language newspaper urged the U.S. to “release health and infection information of the US military delegation which came to Wuhan for the Military World Games in October.” This, claimed the newspaper, would “end the conjecture about US military personnel bringing COVID-19 to China.”

The newspaper said it was responding to claims made by a U.S. “investigative journalist” George Webb who is described by the New York Times as a “far-right YouTube conspiracy theorist.”

Webb claims that the novel coronavirus was manufactured in a U.S. military lab and brought to China by diplomatic driver Maatje Benassi, a 52-year-old racing cyclist who was in Wuhan in October to take part in the Military World Games.

Webb’s claim—which Global Times admitted had been made “without strong evidence”—has been widely discussed in China, and is in addition to a claim made by foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian who told his 300,000 Twitter followers on March 12 that the virus could have been manufactured by the U.S. Army.

“Many Chinese netizens have urged the US to test Benassi for COVID-19 and release information on the US delegation,” reported Global Times.

Li Haidong, a professor of U.S. studies at the China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, was said to have told the newspaper that the “U.S. government needs to respond to the controversy and publish the relevant information regarding their health status and infection record to clear public doubts and help with the scientific study on the virus’ origin.”

China has sought to downplay its role in the emergence of the novel coronavirus. However, most experts believe the virus that causes COVID-19 originated in a “wet market”—places selling live and dead animals for human consumption— in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

The search for “patient-zero”—the first documented patient in a disease epidemic within a population—has been widespread in China and elsewhere. On March 6, the Wall Street Journal reported that one of the first patients to become infected with the crippling respiratory illness was 57-year-old seafood merchant Wei Guixian who worked in the Wuhan market where the virus is believed to have first spread to humans. (She has since recovered.)

American actor Gwyneth Paltrow was patient-zero in the recently much-watched 2011 Hollywood movie “Contagion.”

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