An aerial view shows the P4 laboratory at the
Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China. April 17, 2020 © AFP /
Hector Retamal
The West’s wish to pin the blame on China (and probably the bill
too) for the Covid-19 pandemic has been reportedly incarnated in a
15-page dossier compiled by intelligence agencies, which has now leaked,
according to reports.
The document,
described by the Australian newspaper the Sunday Telegraph, was prepared by
“concerned Western governments.”
The publication mentions that the Five Eyes intelligence agencies are
investigating China, pointing to the United States, Australia, New
Zealand, Canada and the UK.
The authors of the research found some
pretty strange ways to paint China’s response to the outbreak in a
negative and even sinister way. For instance, despite a presumed
requirement for brevity in such a short paper it refers to a study which
claimed the killer coronavirus had been created in a lab.
The scientific community’s consensus says otherwise, while US
intelligence is on the record agreeing with this position. The study
itself has been withdrawn because there was no direct proof to support
the theory, as its author Botao Xiao acknowledged. But the ‘China
dossier’ found a warm spot for a mention, it appears.
A large
portion of the document is apparently dedicated to the Wuhan Institute
of Virology and one of its top researchers, Shi Zhengli, who has a long
and distinguished career of studying SARS-like coronaviruses and bats as
their natural reservoirs. It seems the dossier is not interested in the
database of bat-related viruses she helped create but rather in the
claim that the Covid-19 pandemic started as a leak from her lab.
The
dossier points to the so-called gain-of-function research that Dr. Shi
was involved in. Such studies are aimed at identifying possible
mutations in infectious agents that may occur naturally and makes them
much more dangerous to humans. Creating stems with such mutations in the
lab allows to prepare for a possible outbreak, though whether such
research is worth the risk of accidental release or even bioterrorism
attacks has been subject to much debate.
In the contents of the dossier however the implications seem clear:
what if China lost control of one of its dangerous samples and then did
everything it could to cover it up? The alleged obfuscation seems to be
the main focus of the damning document. It claims Beijing was engaged in
“suppression and destruction of evidence” including by
disinfecting the food market believed to be the ground zero of the
Covid-19 pandemic. China is also accused of hypocrisy because it imposed
a ban on internal travel from the Hubei province while arguing against a
ban on international flights.
“Millions of people leave Wuhan after the outbreak and before Beijing locks down the city on January 23,” the newspaper cited the document as saying.
“Thousands
fly overseas. Throughout February, Beijing presses the US, Italy,
India, Australia, Southeast Asian neighbours and others not to protect
themselves via travel restrictions, even as the PRC imposes severe
restrictions at home.”
The leaked dossier is yet to be made public for independent scrutiny.
But the dramatic tone of the quotes in the Telegraph and the far-fetched
implications indicate that it is along the lines of infamous
intelligence assessments and media leaks by anonymous officials, which
have been the staple of Western foreign policy for decades. Remember how
Saddam Hussein secretly obtained yellowcake uranium and was ready to
strike Europe with his missiles in 45 minutes? Or the Russian bots that
swayed the 2016 election with memes? If true, we can expect many
‘revelations’ in months to come.
Source:
https://www.rt.com/news/487661-china-covid-dossier-leaked/