Analysis by scientists have largely pointed to wildlife as the source of the virus, somehow jumping from an animal to humans. Such findings have been published in the Lancet, a peer-reviewed journal.

A study published in highly-reputed scientific journal Nature has also poured cold water on lab theory claims, with researchers stating: "We do not believe that any type of laboratory-based scenario is plausible".

The coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than two million people and killed nearly 140,000, has strained US-China relations to a new low coming on the back of difficult trade negotiations last year.

Mr Trump came under fire from Beijing earlier this year after calling coronavirus the “Chinese virus.” He has also accused Beijing of concealing the outbreak when it first emerged, a move that exacerbated how infections spread globally.

Mr Trump and other US officials have also expressed deep scepticism of China's officially declared death toll from the virus of around 3,000 people, when the United States has a death toll of more than 20,000 and rising.

He said on Wednesday that the United States has more cases "because we do more reporting".

“Do you really believe those numbers in this vast country called China, and that they have a certain number of cases and a certain number of deaths; does anybody really believe that?” he said.

That’s since extended to criticisms of the World Health Organisation, which he said this week was complicit in withholding key information.

Beijing has hit back as well, expelling US journalists in a tit-for-tat war that authorities say began as a way to lodge a complaint against a column in the Wall Street Journal with the headline, “China Is the Real Sick Man of Asia,” which criticised the country’s public health response.

Meanwhile the US State Department claimed China may be secretly conducting low-yield underground nuclear tests, in a new arms-control report which is likely to further inflame tensions between the two nations.