Internal documents obtained by the Associated Press show that top Chinese Communist Party officials had quietly ordered strict control of all research related to the Communist Chinese Viral Disease (COVID-19) and a secret search for the origin of the virus. Samples in the hands of scientists searching for the bat roost virus have been confiscated by police, even though a World health Organization research team is set to visit China next January.
Beijing has distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to state-supported scientists to find the origins of the virus; but so far, there have been very few reports of their research findings.
Meanwhile, the official media is actively promoting the theory that the Communist virus may have come from outside China, confusing outside experts.
A lengthy Associated Press report on Wednesday (Dec. 30) said that deep in the tree-lined valleys of southern China lies the entrance to a mine that once contained bats carrying a coronavirus closest to the Chinese Communist virus.
The area has thus sparked high interest among scientists because it could provide clues to the origins of a new coronavirus that has killed more than 1.7 million people worldwide. “For scientists and journalists, however, it has become a black hole of no information because of its political sensitivity and secrecy,” the AP story reads.
A bat research team that visited the area recently managed to collect samples, but they were confiscated, two people familiar with the matter said. New coronavirus research experts were given orders not to give interviews to the press. An Associated Press team of reporters was followed by plainclothes police in late November, who drove multiple vehicles and blocked the road to the site.
The AP found that the Chinese government has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to scientists studying the origins of the virus, and that these southern Chinese scientists are believed to have ties to the military. But Beijing is closely monitoring the findings and mandating that any release of data or research must be approved by a new central working group ordered by China’s top leader Xi Jinping, according to internal documents obtained by the AP. The rare leak of the dozens of pages of internal documents confirms what many have long suspected: that the clampdown on information comes from the highest levels.
For this reason, the public is kept virtually ignorant of research progress and information. Beijing’s measures to severely restrict the flow of information have hindered cooperation with international scientists.
The Associated Press investigative report is based on dozens of interviews with scientists and officials in China and abroad, public notices, leaked emails, internal data, and documents from the Chinese State Council and the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The investigation reveals that a system of government secrecy and a top-down control model has been clearly visible throughout the new coronavirus outbreak pandemic.
Gregory Gray, an epidemiologist at Duke University, asked himself, “What did they really find? Maybe their data is not conclusive, or maybe they’re suppressing it for some political reason. I don’t know. …… I wish I knew.”
Scientists familiar with China’s public health system say the country’s approach to other sensitive research is similar.
They only choose people they trust and those they can control,” said one public health expert who fears retaliation and often works with the CDC. Military teams and other teams are also working on investigations, but whether their findings are made public depends entirely on the outcome of the investigation.”
The global pandemic of the new coronavirus outbreak has weakened Beijing’s reputation on the global stage; as a result, Chinese Communist Party leaders are wary of any findings that might indicate their negligence and carelessness. Neither the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology nor the National Health Commission, which is in charge of research into the origins of the coronavirus, responded to a request for comment from the Associated Press.
In a fax, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said, “This new coronavirus has been found in many parts of the world. Scientists should conduct international scientific research and cooperation on a global scale.”
Some Chinese scientists say very little information has been shared; simply because there hasn’t been any significant discovery. “We’ve been looking, but nothing has been found yet,” said Zhang Yongzhen, a leading virologist in Shanghai, China.
Not coincidentally, Chinese Communist Party leaders are far from alone in politicizing research on the origins of the virus. In April, President Donald Trump put on hold a U.S. government-funded project to investigate and identify dangerous animal diseases in China and Africa, completely cutting off cooperation between U.S. and Chinese scientists and further complicating the search for the source of the virus.
Trump has also blamed an accident at China’s Wuhan lab for artificially triggering the new coronavirus pandemic. Virus experts say this possibility cannot be ruled out; however, there is currently no evidence to support this theory.
Research into the origins of the new coronavirus is critical to preventing future pandemics. Although an international team from the World Health Organization is scheduled to visit China in early January next year to investigate the cause of the new coronavirus pandemic; the membership and agenda of this international team must be approved by China.
Some public health experts warn that China’s refusal to give international scientists further access to research on the origins of the virus undermines the successful global collaboration that identified the source of the SARS outbreak nearly 20 years ago.
Jonna Mazet, founding executive director of the University of California, Davis, Health Research Institute, said the lack of collaboration between U.S. and Chinese scientists is “disappointing” and the inability of U.S. scientists to work in China is “devastating.
“There is so much speculation about the origin of the new coronavirus. We need to each take a step back… Let scientists seek and get real answers, not point fingers at each other,” Mazet said.
A WHO report completed in July and published in November said Chinese health authorities identified 124 cases in December 2019, including five cases outside Wuhan. One of the goals of the WHO’s upcoming visit to China is to review hospital records from last December.
Peter Daszak, a WHO panel member and coronavirus expert, said determining the origin of the new coronavirus pandemic should not be used to convict anyone.
“All of us are a part of it. We have to be aware of that or we’ll never get rid of the problem,” Daszak said.
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