China has released a report saying the United States may actually be the source of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report was published by China’s State Council Information Office and challenges the popular belief that the virus came from a lab in Wuhan, China.

The document is a response to renewed claims from former President Donald Trump and his campaign. They continue to say that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was researching coronaviruses at the time.

Chinese officials argue that the U.S. is trying to avoid blame for its own failures in handling the pandemic. They accuse the U.S. government of politicizing the virus and using China as a scapegoat.

The report claims that COVID-19 might have started in the U.S. before it was officially found in China. It points to a CDC study that showed some people in the U.S. had antibodies to the virus as early as December 2019. It also mentions earlier outbreaks of respiratory illness in the U.S. during 2019, suggesting they could have been early COVID cases, though there is no confirmed proof.

China criticized the U.S. for not answering international concerns and for ignoring signs of the virus early on. The report says that in January 2020, the U.S. knew COVID-19 was spreading but still compared it to the flu and said it would go away on its own.

The report also claims that China gave the world valuable time to prepare, but the U.S. wasted that time with a slow response.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government recently launched a new COVID-19 website repeating the idea that the virus leaked from the Wuhan lab. It also criticizes how President Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci handled the crisis.

Many scientists still believe the virus started in animals and then spread to humans, but the exact origin is still being debated.