作者：  来源：New York Times

Dr. Li Wenliang tried to warn his country but was silenced. Now its traumatized people visit his spirit online.

THEY COME TO SAY “good morning” and “good night.” They tell him that spring has arrived and that the cherry blossoms are blooming. They share that they are falling in love, falling out of love or getting divorced. They send him photos of fried chicken drumsticks, his favorite snack.

They whisper that they miss him.

Li Wenliang, a doctor in the Chinese city of Wuhan, died of the coronavirus on Feb. 6 at the age of 34. More than a month before that, he went online to warn friends of the strange and deadly virus rampaging through his hospital, only to be threatened by government authorities. He became a hero in China when his warnings proved true, then a martyr when he died.

After his passing, people began to gather, virtually, at his last post on Weibo, the Chinese social media platform. In the comments section, they grieve and seek solace. Some call it China’s Wailing Wall, a reference to the Western Wall in Jerusalem where people leave written prayers in the cracks.

@小兔子的大耳朵A: 李医生，天堂是什么样子的

@小兔子的大耳朵A: Dr. Li, what is heaven like?

@大大-dada: 今天我家的咪咪去世了

@大大-dada: Dr. Li, my cat died today.

@福气多多吖: 李医生，樱花开了，记得来看看

@福气多多吖: Dr. Li, the cherry blossoms are blooming. Remember to check it out.

@242呀: 早上好呀，李医生 请你吃个炸鸡腿

@242呀: Good morning, Dr. Li. Here’s a drumstick for you. 

@奥杰塔Odette: 李医生，谢谢你曾尝试拯救地球

@奥杰塔Odette: Dr. Li, thank you for trying to save the world.

As the deadly virus killed tens of thousands around the world, each society will have its unique way of coping with the loss and grief. In a largely atheist yet spiritual nation with little tradition of praying, the digital Wailing Wall allows the Chinese people to share their sadness, frustration and aspirations with someone they trusted and loved.

It may be the gentlest place on the often polarizing and combative Chinese internet. People write down their thoughts and leave. They don’t argue or make accusations. When they do respond to each other, they leave digital hugs and encouragement. I cried as I read through the comments. I found the experience cathartic.

It’s a refuge for a traumatized people. Many people, I believe, feel the same way.

Dr. Li had been an avid user of Weibo, China’s rough equivalent of Twitter, since 2011. He posted his last message on Feb. 1. “Today the nucleic acid test result is positive,” he wrote of the test that confirmed he had been infected by the coronavirus. “The dust has settled, and the diagnosis is finally confirmed.” He died five days later.

Under that post, Weibo users have left more than 870,000 comments. Some people post a few times a day, telling him how their mornings, afternoons and evenings went. Only posts by China’s biggest actors and pop stars can match those numbers, but even those lack the visceral response that Dr. Li’s last post has drawn.

Users feel comfortable talking to Dr. Li. They know he will never scold them or judge them for what they say. They know, after reading his more than 2,000 posts, that he was a gentle and kind soul. He was an ordinary person just like them who enjoyed food and fun and sometimes got tired of working such a demanding job. He would understand.

@非法期望: 李医生，我喜欢上了一个女孩

@非法期望: Dr. Li, I have a crush on a girl.

@至暗灯塔: 生活过得一团糟，可能不久就要离婚了

@至暗灯塔: My life is a mess. I’ll probably get divorced soon.

@隔离香菇: 我好像抑郁了一样

@隔离香菇:I think I may have depression.

@他–是–梦: 生活压力很大，可是又有什么比活着更好，不是吗？

@他–是–梦: Too much stress. But what is better than being alive, right?

@一只放荡不羁的霹雷猫: 成都可以打麻将吃火锅了，想念你

@一只放荡不羁的霹雷猫: We can have spicy hot pot in Chengdu now. Missing you.

@Juana的两只猫要和平共处: 两个多月没有工资，很怕房东打电话来催房租

@Juana的两只猫要和平共处: I haven’t been paid in more than two months. Really scared that the landlord will call.

@唱唱反调唱反调: 疫情之前辞职了现在感觉找不到工作了

@唱唱反调唱反调: I quit before the epidemic broke out. Now I’m worried that I won’t be able to find a job.

@ 林大1977: 由于欧美疫情的爆发，我失业了！2020实在太难了

@ 林大1977: I lost my job because of the outbreak in Europe and the U.S.! 2020 is too difficult.

@毛不易未公开女友: 现在外面下着雨。我最爱的就是下雨天，因为下雨天走在雨中可以哭泣而不会被人察觉！这是我第一次告诉一个人原因，也可能是最后一次了。

@毛不易未公开女友: It’s raining now. I like the rainy days the best because I can cry in the rain and no one would notice. This is the first time I’ve shared this secret with anyone, and probably the last time.

@关于我死亡之前要做的事儿: 手机翻来覆去没人可以聊会儿 就来看看你 和你说说吧

@关于我死亡之前要做的事儿: I played with my phone for a long time but couldn’t find anybody to talk to. So here I am. I can talk to you.

I read thousands of messages people left just on March 26, the 49th day — the seventh day of the seventh week — since Dr. Li’s death. Many Chinese believe that is the day that a person’s soul will finally leave the body and be reincarnated as a newborn.

March 26 is also when Wuhan began to allow its residents to take back the ashes of their loved ones. People queued in long lines at funeral homes. The photos triggered social media discussions of the real scope of the outbreak and the credibility of government’s official toll of Wuhan’s dead. Many of the photos were subsequently censored.

@在我最美的流年里遇见你: 李医生，评论区里有人说您可能已经是一个宝宝了，如果真的有投胎转世，希望是一个帅宝宝

@在我最美的流年里遇见你: Dr. Li, some comments said that you have probably been reborn as a baby by now. If you’re reincarnated, I hope you’ll be a good-looking baby.

@揭帝波若: 都49天了吗？我觉得你在温柔地看着这个世界，你希望我们都好。你要好好照顾自己了，不许再生那么重的病。

@揭帝波若: Has it been 49 days? I feel that you’re looking upon this world gently and wishing us the best. Please take good care of yourself. You’re not allowed to be so sick again.

@自观的猫咪: 你的亲人去领你的骨灰了吗？怀念你，再一次谢谢你

@自观的猫咪: Dr, Li, did your family go to pick up your ashes? Miss you, and thanks again.

@去年夏天: 李医生啊，为啥连领骨灰的微博也要删掉？你说通过这次疫情是不是啥也没学到

@去年夏天: Dr. Li, why were the Weibo posts about taking back loved ones’ ashes deleted? Have we learned nothing from this outbreak? What would you say?

@悲伤与理性: 李医生，今天好像你们医院有一名医生去世了，不知道掌权者还坐不坐得住？

@悲伤与理性: It seems that another doctor in your hospital died today. How can the people in power sit so securely?

Because many people see him as an ordinary person wronged by the authorities and as a hero who stood up to power, they come to him to express their frustration that justice and righteousness haven’t prevailed.

They are angry that only two police officers have been punished for reprimanding him. Many believe the police were acting on orders from higher up.

They also share their relief that China’s lockdowns appear to be nearing an end, their distrust of the official news and their lingering fear of the pandemic.

@大猪佩奇: 只要一想到武汉人民所遭受的一切痛苦和伤害，眼泪就不止不住往下掉

@大猪佩奇: I can’t keep my tears from falling every time I think of all the suffering and trauma Wuhan people have endured.

@护士黄菊: 对你的调查报告，总有一天，会让人民重写

@护士黄菊: The day will come when the people can rewrite the investigation report of your case.

@雅琴仙纸: 李医生，武汉马上解封了，解封了，解封了

@雅琴仙纸: Dr. Li, the lockdown is ending in Wuhan! It’s ending! It’s ending!

@-方艺鸣–: 我是听说这里什么都可以说，我也来签个到

@-方艺鸣–: I heard this is the only place on the Chinese internet where you can say anything. So here I am.

@鹿鸣小馆李子: 媒体每天都是好消息唉，文亮兄媒体有没有可信度啊？

@鹿鸣小馆李子: The media is full of good news. Brother Wenliang, do you believe the media?

@鱼阿东: 李医生，你能告诉我现在疫情的真实情况吗？

@鱼阿东: Dr. Li, can you tell me the real situation of the outbreak now?

@慕灵诺: 国外疫情很严重，希望他们能平安度过

@慕灵诺: The outbreak is very serious abroad. I hope they can get over it safely.

@落卡落卡落: 有的地方一线医护的补助发下来又被收上去，真的寒心。我是医科大学大一学生，有点想放弃了

@落卡落卡落: In some places the subsidies for front-line medical workers were distributed then taken back. I’m very disappointed. I am a first-year medical student. I kind of want to give up.

@凤凰涅槃—绽放的生命: 希望背后的人可以得到应有的惩罚！ 希望这里允许真话发声！ 希望你的家人们可以得到照顾！

@凤凰涅槃—绽放的生命: Hope the people behind this will receive due punishment! Hope we can speak the truth here! Hope your family will be taken care of!

Some people complain that the comments are censored, an allegation that is difficult to prove. They worry that his Weibo account could be deleted, just like many others. Then, they will lose the only place they can take a break from a world that has been turned upside down.

They watch warily and helplessly as the pandemic spreads to many parts of the world and the two super powers, China and the United States, engage in reckless and meaningless diplomatic squabbles. Like people everywhere, they don’t know how this is going to end.

But most people just want to tell him that they miss him and wish him the best in the next world.

@多吃馒头身体好: 讲作文的时候我会告诉孩子们关于您的故事，让孩子们记住之前有一个你为他们付出过生命

@多吃馒头身体好: I talked about you in my writing class. Hope the children will remember that you sacrificed your life for them.

@CASA的小主人咩: 今天又有一万多人来看你，你已经活在人们心里，你不会被忘记！

@CASA的小主人咩: More than 10,000 people came to see you here today. You live in our hearts. You will not be forgotten!

@不出葡萄不吐皮: 好像一到这里所有人都能变得温柔了，真好。

@不出葡萄不吐皮: It seems everyone becomes gentle as soon as they come here. It’s so nice.

@栖木mumu: 李医生，再追会剧我就要睡觉啦，您也早点睡啊。爱您

@栖木mumu: Dr. Li, I’ll watch a bit of TV before going to bed. Please go to bed early too. Love you.

@韩t雯: 晚安李医生，希望你每个夜里都有好梦

@韩t雯: Good night, Dr. Li. Hope you’ll have sweet dreams every night.

@海绵味de宝宝: 晚安 晚安 晚安

@海绵味de宝宝: Good night. Good night. Good night.

来源时间：2020/4/15   发布时间：2020/4/15

旧文章ID：21311

作者：Kerry Brown  来源：Newsweek

Despite all the accusations over the past few years, it’s proved hard to truly nail China for evil intent. It has a huge military, that’s true, but beyond irritating and involving itself in skirmishes, it hasn’t deployed internationally in any meaningful way. It’s been accused of having deep state involvement in cyber-espionage—but then, up to an extent, so does everyone else. It’s been accused of distorting the global economy. And President Donald Trump has consistently accused it of unfair trade practices. But when you get to details, these involve violation of the spirit of the law, not the letter. Until now, in a metaphorical court with any sense of fairness,
the best charge against China was deeply suspicious behavior, not anything that could draw an unequivocal guilty verdict. The evidence fell just a little bit short.
The COVID-19 crisis is a human tragedy, and it is now touching everyone. But for a vocal constituency across the world, those more and more wedded to the vision of China as a kind of existential threat, it has also been the moment that offered them concrete proof that finally, utterly and without mitigation, China is guilty. Hawks on either side of the Atlantic have been brushing off their most indignant, furious language. The origin of the virus, the initial handling of it and then the subsequent messaging by China—all these have supplemented the guilty verdict. The hawks have finally found their crucial piece of evidence.
In the U.K., until now a relatively neutral space as far as China was concerned, the impact has been noticeable. A parliamentary committee of backbench politicians issued a frenetic call to arms last year about the need for the precious liberal institutions of the U.K. to guard against autocracy. The fact that many of them, including the committee’s chair, Tom Tugendhat, were vociferous supporters of the chaotic quest to leave the European Union—something that arguably did far more to undermine the U.K.’s global role and security situation—has been brushed aside.
In a series of reports in March and April, the committee pinned blame for the coronavirus pandemic fairly and squarely on China. At a time when public hearings are suspended for public health reasons, this is a novel innovation: preemptively issuing conclusions until they can safely start gathering supportive evidence.
The Henry Jackson Society, a British foreign policy think tank, took things a step further, demanding hundreds of billions of pounds of reparations for the economic damage the virus is likely to do. This echoes the punitive demands for money made toward China in the imperial era, more than a century ago, which contributed to the country’s descent into decades of poverty and war. It’s not exactly a successful model. Nor, more importantly, does it have the slightest chance of being implemented.
The Chinese government has not exactly covered itself in glory either. Images of aid being sent to Italy and other hard-hit places may have sprung from good intentions. But just a little advice from some more European-savvy public relations advisers may have alerted China to the dangers of appearing opportunistic. Publicity is fine; propaganda is not. There is a thin line between them. And while the boxes of face masks and other items being sent played well for domestic media in China, they were probably not such a good thing everywhere else. No one likes their suffering to figure as part of someone else’s grand campaign for validation.
Young diplomats at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing have only exacerbated matters, producing puzzling footage that they claim shows the virus came from the United States. There is a valid scientific debate about the issue of origins. But as Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Cui Tiankai wisely noted, now is not the time, and this is not the way, to conduct it. Diplomats are no more qualified to talk about virology than anyone else—except virologists. The scientists will eventually have to settle this one.
As COVID-19 began to spread, Beijing should have said more consistently that this is a human crisis. It was a time to demonstrate human solidarity. To prevent bad blood from building up into what is now threatening to be a new Cold War.
Through all of this turmoil, on all sides, reckless opportunism and seeking to pin responsibility on anyone only adds to the problem—it doesn’t help solve it. Cold warriors in Europe and America may have waited for their moment of vindication after all the years of screaming from the rooftops that China was an enemy. But it is pretty clear that whatever role China may have had, it was more than supplemented by the often panicky, chaotic and inept response of other
nations.
This is not surprising. The crisis was of a nature, and a scale, that meant it would have knocked back even the best prepared. A little humility on the part of everyone would be good now. Let’s just face it: We have all been exposed and found wanting. Compounding the matter by seeking to pin the blame on others is cowardly and dishonest.
Finally, we have to come back to the big crime that China has committed in the eyes of many of the fiercest critics in the outside world. That, oddly enough, has never really changed, despite the impact of COVID-19. It has remained the same. China’s original sin was to practice capitalism, successfully, and not to politically reform. It is also, for some of the more virulent in the Cold War camp, to be an Asian country daring to become the world’s largest economy. For all the tumult in the past few weeks, the charge sheet against China has not changed. Nor is it ever likely to—particularly after a crisis like the one we are just facing. That is a great tragedy. We should be coming together, not tearing ourselves apart.
Kerry Brown is director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London and associate fellow on the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House.

来源时间：2020/4/14   发布时间：2020/4/14

旧文章ID：21305

作者：Jim O’Neil  来源：Project-Syndicate

Nobody denies that Chinese officials’ initial effort to cover up the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan at the turn of the year was an appallingly misguided decision. But anyone who is still focusing on China’s failings instead of working toward a solution is essentially making the same mistake.

LONDON – As the COVID-19 crisis roars on, so have debates about China’s role in it. Based on what is known, it is clear that some Chinese officials made a major error in late December and early January, when they tried to prevent disclosures of the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, even silencing health-care workers who tried to sound the alarm. China’s leaders will have to live with these mistakes, even if they succeed in resolving the crisis and adopting adequate measures to prevent a future outbreak.

What is less clear is why other countries think it is in their interest to keep referring to China’s initial errors, rather than working toward solutions. For many governments, naming and shaming China appears to be a ploy to divert attention from their own lack of preparedness. Equally concerning is the growing criticism of the World Health Organization, not least by US President Donald Trump, who has attacked the organization for supposedly failing to hold the Chinese government to account. At a time when the top global priority should be to organize a comprehensive coordinated response to the dual health and economic crises unleashed by the coronavirus, this blame game is not just unhelpful but dangerous.

Globally and at the country level, we desperately need to do everything possible to accelerate the development of a safe and effective vaccine, while in the meantime stepping up collective efforts to deploy the diagnostic and therapeutic tools necessary to keep the health crisis under control. Given that there is no other global health organization with the capacity to confront the pandemic, the WHO will remain at the center of the response, whether certain political leaders like it or not.

Having dealt with the WHO to a modest degree during my time as chairman of the UK’s independent Review on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), I can say that it is similar to most large, bureaucratic international organizations. Like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the United Nations, it is not especially dynamic or inclined to think outside the box. But rather than sniping at these organizations from the sidelines, we should be working to improve them. In the current crisis, we should be doing everything we can to help both the WHO and the IMF to play an effective, leading role in the global response.

As I have argued before, the IMF should expand the scope of its annual Article IV assessments to include national public-health systems, given that these are critical determinants in a country’s ability to prevent or at least manage a crisis like the one we are now experiencing. I have even raised this idea with IMF officials themselves, only to be told that such reporting falls outside their remit because they lack the relevant expertise.

That answer was not good enough then, and it definitely isn’t good enough now. If the IMF lacks the expertise to assess public-health systems, it should acquire it. As the COVID-19 crisis makes abundantly clear, there is no useful distinction to be made between health and finance. The two policy domains are deeply interconnected, and should be treated as such.

In thinking about an international response to today’s health and economic emergency, the obvious analogy is to the 2008 global financial crisis. Everyone knows that crisis started with an unsustainable US housing bubble, which had been fed by foreign savings, owing to the lack of domestic savings in the United States. When the bubble finally burst, many other countries sustained more harm than the US did, just as the COVID-19 pandemic has hit some countries much harder than it hit China.

And yet, not many countries around the world sought to single out the US for presiding over a massively destructive housing bubble, even though the scars from that previous crisis are still visible. On the contrary, many welcomed the US economy’s return to sustained growth in recent years, because a strong US economy benefits the rest of the world.

So, rather than applying a double standard and fixating on China’s undoubtedly large errors, we would do better to consider what China can teach us. Specifically, we should be focused on better understanding the technologies and diagnostic techniques that China used to keep its (apparent) death toll so low compared to other countries, and to restart parts of its economy within weeks of the height of the outbreak.

And, for our own sakes, we also should be considering what policies China could adopt to put itself back on a path toward 6% annual growth, because the Chinese economy inevitably will play a significant role in the global recovery. If China’s post-pandemic growth model makes good on its leaders’ efforts in recent years to boost domestic consumption and imports from the rest of the world, we will all be better off.

Jim O’Neill, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and a former UK Treasury Minister, is Chair of Chatham House.

来源时间：2020/4/14   发布时间：2020/4/14

旧文章ID：21304

作者：Josh Rogin  来源：Washington Post

Two years before the novel coronavirus pandemic upended the world, U.S. Embassy officials visited a Chinese research facility in the city of Wuhan several times and sent two official warnings back to Washington about inadequate safety at the lab, which was conducting risky studies on coronaviruses from bats. The cables have fueled discussions inside the U.S. government about whether this or another Wuhan lab was the source of the virus — even though conclusive proof has yet to emerge.

In January 2018, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing took the unusual step of repeatedly sending U.S. science diplomats to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which had in 2015 become China’s first laboratory to achieve the highest level of international bioresearch safety (known as BSL-4). WIV issued a news release in English about the last of these visits, which occurred on March 27, 2018. The U.S. delegation was led by Jamison Fouss, the consul general in Wuhan, and Rick Switzer, the embassy’s counselor of environment, science, technology and health. Last week, WIV erased that statement from its website, though it remains archived on the Internet.

What the U.S. officials learned during their visits concerned them so much that they dispatched two diplomatic cables categorized as Sensitive But Unclassified back to Washington. The cables warned about safety and management weaknesses at the WIV lab and proposed more attention and help. The first cable, which I obtained, also warns that the lab’s work on bat coronaviruses and their potential human transmission represented a risk of a new SARS-like pandemic.

“During interactions with scientists at the WIV laboratory, they noted the new lab has a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory,” states the Jan. 19, 2018, cable, which was drafted by two officials from the embassy’s environment, science and health sections who met with the WIV scientists. (The State Department declined to comment on this and other details of the story.)

The Chinese researchers at WIV were receiving assistance from the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch and other U.S. organizations, but the Chinese requested additional help. The cables argued that the United States should give the Wuhan lab further support, mainly because its research on bat coronaviruses was important but also dangerous.

As the cable noted, the U.S. visitors met with Shi Zhengli, the head of the research project, who had been publishing studies related to bat coronaviruses for many years. In November 2017, just before the U.S. officials’ visit, Shi’s team had published research showing that horseshoe bats they had collected from a cave in Yunnan province were very likely from the same bat population that spawned the SARS coronavirus in 2003.

“Most importantly,” the cable states, “the researchers also showed that various SARS-like coronaviruses can interact with ACE2, the human receptor identified for SARS-coronavirus. This finding strongly suggests that SARS-like coronaviruses from bats can be transmitted to humans to cause SARS-like diseases. From a public health perspective, this makes the continued surveillance of SARS-like coronaviruses in bats and study of the animal-human interface critical to future emerging coronavirus outbreak prediction and prevention.”

The research was designed to prevent the next SARS-like pandemic by anticipating how it might emerge. But even in 2015, other scientists questioned whether Shi’s team was taking unnecessary risks. In October 2014, the U.S. government had imposed a moratorium on funding of any research that makes a virus more deadly or contagious, known as “gain-of-function” experiments.

As many have pointed out, there is no evidence that the virus now plaguing the world was engineered; scientists largely agree it came from animals. But that is not the same as saying it didn’t come from the lab, which spent years testing bat coronaviruses in animals, said Xiao Qiang, a research scientist at the School of Information at the University of California at Berkeley.

“The cable tells us that there have long been concerns about the possibility of the threat to public health that came from this lab’s research, if it was not being adequately conducted and protected,” he said.

There are similar concerns about the nearby Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention lab, which operates at biosecurity level 2, a level significantly less secure than the level-4 standard claimed by the Wuhan Insititute of Virology lab, Xiao said. That’s important because the Chinese government still refuses to answer basic questions about the origin of the novel coronavirus while suppressing any attempts to examine whether either lab was involved.

Sources familiar with the cables said they were meant to sound an alarm about the grave safety concerns at the WIV lab, especially regarding its work with bat coronaviruses. The embassy officials were calling for more U.S. attention to this lab and more support for it, to help it fix its problems.

“The cable was a warning shot,” one U.S. official said. “They were begging people to pay attention to what was going on.”

No extra assistance to the labs was provided by the U.S. government in response to these cables. The cables began to circulate again inside the administration over the past two months as officials debated whether the lab could be the origin of the pandemic and what the implications would be for the U.S. pandemic response and relations with China.

Inside the Trump administration, many national security officials have long suspected either the WIV or the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention lab was the source of the novel coronavirus outbreak. According to the New York Times, the intelligence community has provided no evidence to confirm this. But one senior administration official told me that the cables provide one more piece of evidence to support the possibility that the pandemic is the result of a lab accident in Wuhan.

“The idea that it was just a totally natural occurrence is circumstantial. The evidence it leaked from the lab is circumstantial. Right now, the ledger on the side of it leaking from the lab is packed with bullet points and there’s almost nothing on the other side,” the official said.

As my colleague David Ignatius noted, the Chinese government’s original story — that the virus emerged from a seafood market in Wuhan — is shaky. Research by Chinese experts published in the Lancet in January showed the first known patient, identified on Dec. 1, had no connection to the market, nor did more than one-third of the cases in the first large cluster. Also, the market didn’t sell bats.

Shi and other WIV researchers have categorically denied this lab was the origin for the novel coronavirus. On Feb. 3, her team was the first to publicly report the virus known as 2019-nCoV was a bat-derived coronavirus.

The Chinese government, meanwhile, has put a total lockdown on information related to the virus origins. Beijing has yet to provide U.S. experts with samples of the novel coronavirus collected from the earliest cases. The Shanghai lab that published the novel coronavirus genome on Jan. 11 was quickly shut down by authorities for “rectification.” Several of the doctors and journalists who reported on the spread early on have disappeared.

On Feb. 14, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a new biosecurity law to be accelerated. On Wednesday, CNN reported the Chinese government has placed severe restrictions requiring approval before any research institution publishes anything on the origin of the novel coronavirus.

The origin story is not just about blame. It’s crucial to understanding how the novel coronavirus pandemic started because that informs how to prevent the next one. The Chinese government must be transparent and answer the questions about the Wuhan labs because they are vital to our scientific understanding of the virus, said Xiao.

We don’t know whether the novel coronavirus originated in the Wuhan lab, but the cable pointed to the danger there and increases the impetus to find out, he said.

“I don’t think it’s a conspiracy theory. I think it’s a legitimate question that needs to be investigated and answered,” he said. “To understand exactly how this originated is critical knowledge for preventing this from happening in the future.”

来源时间：2020/4/14   发布时间：2020/4/14

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