Communist China warned Elon Musk against addressing the coronavirus lab leak theory in case it impinges on his future business prospects in the country.
The Twitter CEO commented over the weekend on a post from “Kanekoa The Great” that questioned if the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, had a role in creating the coronavirus.
“Dr. Anthony Fauci funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab, lied to Congress about it, and now both the FBI & the Department of Energy have concluded that the coronavirus originated at the Wuhan lab. Does that mean Dr. Anthony Fauci funded the development of COVID-19?” asked the account.
“He did it via a pass-through organization (EcoHealth),” Musk responded, referencing the nonprofit group that Fauci’s institute gave $8 million in federal research grants to study bat coronaviruses in China.
He did it via a pass-through organization (EcoHealth)
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2023
China responded to Musk’s comment in a social media post from the CCP-controlled Global Times that characterized Musk as a right-wing extremist while basically warning him not to bite the hand that feeds him, alluding to his Tesla factory campus in Shanghai.
“Judging from public information and past media reports, Musk himself has actually been moving closer to these right-wing forces in the United States in recent years,” it said. “He has been dealing with many domestic and foreign issues such as racism issues, gender issues, and Russia-Ukraine conflict issues in the United States.”
“In fact, he has shown a tendency to endorse these right-wing conservative values. He himself seems to enjoy the feeling of being sought after by the American right-wing forces and ‘carrying the sedan chair.’ Therefore, on the issue of the source of the new crown virus, he will naturally mix with these people,” it added.
The post further said Musk could be “breaking the pot of China,” which, according to CNBC’s Eunice Yoon, essentially means to “bite the hand that feeds you.”
The coronavirus lab leak theory gained serious traction this week when FBI Director Christopher Wray said that theory has merit.
FBI Director Christopher Wray publicly confirmed that the FBI assessed that the COVID virus most likely originated from a lab. https://t.co/zQeuJFAxOi
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 1, 2023
“The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” Wray told Fox News. “Here you are talking about a potential leak from a Chinese government-controlled lab.”
“I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we’re doing, the work that our U.S. government and close foreign partners are doing. And that’s unfortunate for everybody,” he added.