Thats a daring statement, to say the virus was intentionally released. Not entirely impossible, however. I read a SF novel 40 years ago, where exactly this was described - that the superpowers would use such methods to damage the economy of their enemies, because the conventional warfare with bombs and tanks and such would be suicide. So they secretly target the economy to ruin them financially.
However, this book was written at a time when the US (and Europe ect) still had its own manufacturing industry, and was not depending on goods being made in China. Today, shutting down China with such methods can easily backfire, leading to effect like the ones we are beginning to see world wide.