The Chinese Culpability: Of unregulated Wet Markets, history of lab leaks and cover-ups

The world is witnessing an unprecedented crisis hitherto unseen in the last half a century. Even at the peak of WW II, the world did not come to a standstill. Even the sounds of approaching bombers or the whistling nodes of falling shells perhaps did not create the kind of mass hysteria that has gripped the world today. Call it a curse of globalisation or something else, nothing in these times are local, not even an epidemic.

The COVID-19 crisis has many dimensions.  If it is some kind of a bio-economic-information weapon, then surely it has shown how global economic activities can be brought to a halt with a portentous combination of a highly contagious and fast mutating virus cocktailed with an information overload that has led to a massive fear psychosis across continents. More than the fatalities being directly caused by COVID-19, it is the fear of the impending or the inevitable catastrophe, real or imagined, which is mentally killing people. 

Necessity of finding genesis of the crisis

Even as the scientific community is working overtime to find a wonder drug or a vaccine to deal with it, and even as in many countries, including India, people and industry are coming together to improvise and find ways and means to battle the crisis, it is important to have a deeper look as to what made this crisis emerge and who all should be held culpable for the same. COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which in all probability is a derivative or a mutated version of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome that unleashed mayhem around 2002-03), could have originated from either of three sources. In the first place, it could have possibly originated from the wet markets of China and especially of that of Wuhan.

The second possibility is that of an accidental leakage from any Chinese government-owned laboratory such as the Wuhan Institute of Virology or Wuhan Health Center for Disease Control (WHCDC). The former, incidentally houses China Center for Virus Culture Collection (CCVCC), the largest Virus bank of Asia, and is a repository of more than 1500 different strains of virus. The third possibility is invariably that of a deliberate unleashing of the virus to wreak global havoc. Let us now examine each of the possibilities.

The wet market theory

One possible theory doing the rounds is that the epicentre of the spread of COVID 19 was one of the wet markets of Wuhan, where all kinds of exotic animals, including bats, are traded for human consumption.  Ever since the outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome),  which is also a kind of coronavirus, fingers of suspicion have always been on absolute lack of regulation of Chinese wet markets.  So from that perspective, if COVID-19 did spread from the wet markets, is China not culpable for its lackadaisical approach and criminal negligence in terms of not managing those wet markets even when it was aware of what mayhem those wet markets, and the wild animals sold there, could unleash?

An article published in Nature magazine in November 2015 mentioned about the possibility of a SARS-like cluster of bat coronaviruses showing potential to infect human beings. The article specifically mentioned a SARS-like virus named SHC014 which has been prevalent among the Chinese horseshoe bat population. Likewise, in a research article published in February 2016 in Virologica Sinica, the journal of Chinese Society for Microbiology, a group of Chinese microbiologist mentioned about ‘coexistence of multiple coronaviruses in several bat colonies in an abandoned mineshaft’.  

The article stated, ‘Bats are likely the natural reservoir of alpha and beta-coronaviruses, and due to the rich diversity and global distribution of bats, the number of bat coronaviruses will likely increase’. The possibility of the same was more profound in the subtropical regions of Yunnan, Guangdong, and Guangxi. Also, in an article published in Scientificamerican.com, on the issue of bat dwellings in caves, Ralph Baric, a Virologist from the University of North Carolina was quoted stating, ‘constant mixing of different viruses creates a great opportunity for dangerous new pathogens to emerge’. Therefore, would be it surprising if COVID-19 is the outcome of something similar that had happened in those bat dwellings and then those bats found their way into the wet markets of Wuhan that eventually led to the outbreak?

In such a scenario, can China shrug off its responsibility? Is it not true that, if it is the wet markets of Wuhan from where the virus had spread, then China is responsible for turning a blind eye to what was being sold there, especially bats, which are known repositories of different kinds of coronaviruses, and other possible intermediary animals such as pangolins and civets, which could have facilitated in the animal-to-human transmission? Is it not true that China was playing with fire even while knowing the dangerous ramifications of the same, which has now put the entire world in harm’s way, especially when there is already a history of such wet markets in the past being the epicentre of dangerous SARS outbreak in 2002-03?

Read: China's Government Gives Cash To Car Buyers As Sales Drop Due To COVID-19 Crisis

The accidental leak theory

The second theory that is doing the rounds is of possible accidental leakage from the Wuhan Institute of Virology or any other Chinese government-owned laboratory in Wuhan. In fact, on the issue of accidental leakage, one cannot deny the fact that China does have a history of such incidents happening from its laboratories. In 2004, there were reports of leakage of the SARS virus from the National Institute of Virology, Beijing.  In a bulletin published on 18th May 2004, World Health Organisation stated,  ‘China’s latest SARS outbreak has been contained, but biosafety concerns remain’, a vindication of apprehensions surrounding the biosafety of Chinese laboratories.

Earlier, there were also speculations surrounding re-emergent Influenza-A or H1N1 virus in 1977 which was also attributed to incidents in some Chinese laboratories resulting in the accidental release of the strain. Even a few years back, when the Wuhan Institute of Virology was on the verge of getting certified for handling some of the most dangerous pathogens of the world, similar apprehensions of possible leakages and its resultant impact in terms of global geopolitical tensions were raised by scientific communities.

There were also reports that Patient Zero might possibly been a scientist working in a Chinese government-owned laboratory.  Some British newspapers specifically mentioned a research paper written by Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao and sponsored by the South China University of Technology, wherein a reference was made of a particular incident at the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control Laboratory (WHCDC) regarding a researcher being attacked by bats. Expectedly, China has vehemently refuted the allegations.

However China’s real culpability, in case it was an accidental outbreak, lies in its effort in covering it up instead of coming clean and letting the world know of the possible ramifications which would have helped the world prepare better. For more than a month, China’s efforts to cover it up instead of making the world aware of it, gave the virus a head-start because of which its containment became a major challenge. 

Read: Coronavirus: Pompeo Says China Did Not Give Americans Access When Needed The Most

The bioweapon theory

The third alternative theory associated with the outbreak is whether it is a biological weapon or not. While the focus has essentially been on the debate regarding the possibility of COVID-19 being genetically engineered, in reality, it is not necessary that every biological weapon unleashed and aimed at debilitating economies and productive activities of adversaries would be genetically engineered. Even if the benefit of the doubt goes to China, that COVID 19 is not engineered, is it not true that for its attempts to cover up the outbreak, the entire world is now grappling with it and global economic activities have been brought down to a standstill?

Is it also not true that China went for a brutal crackdown on the whistle-blowers in Wuhan, who were trying to warn the world about the impending epidemic? Is it not true that Dr. Li Wenliang was warned by Chinese authorities and was told to ‘stop making false comments’ and was allegedly investigated for the so-called spreading of rumours? Is it not true that Dr. Li Wenliang eventually died by contracting COVID-19 while treating patients? Can one then question whether the Chinese efforts to contain its spread to the rest of the world were up to the mark or not?

Read: As Donald Trump Halts US Funding For WHO, China's Media Highlights Experts' Opposition

Did China mislead the World Health Organisation?

Also, on 14th January 2020, WHO tweeted, “Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China."

The question that needs an answer is whether China misled WHO to make this tweet. If one is to believe what the Taiwanese officials have claimed about warning WHO way back in December last year about healthcare professionals in China falling ill while treating COVID-19 patients, then surely those human-to-human transmissions were happening much before WHO made that tweet in the middle of January. What was the agenda then behind the misleading tweet? Did it not lead to the world reducing its guard against the impending crisis? Also, if China could miraculously contain the spread in the rest of China, beyond Wuhan city and Hubei Province, then should one not wonder as to why China could not exhibit similar alacrity in containing the spread from Wuhan to rest of the world?

In the same league, one is compelled to wonder about the statement made by Tedros Adhanom, Director-General of World Health Organisation on 4th February 2020 in his opening remarks at the technical briefing on COVID 19.  He stated, ‘….we reiterate our call to all countries not to impose restrictions inconsistent with the International Health Regulations. Such restrictions can have the effect of increasing fear and stigma, with little public health benefit.’

Later, this statement was tweeted by World Health Organisation. The interesting part of this saga is that just before this statement against travel restriction, Dr. Tedros Adhanom was in Beijing and had met the Chinese President Xi Jinping on January 29 and was himself witness to the type of travel restriction that China had imposed on not just Wuhan city but the whole of Hubei province.

Yet in spite of being witness to the same, why the DG of WHO advocated against international travel restrictions is still a mystery. If WHO had advocated for international travel restrictions then itself, the virus would not have spread globally to that extent as it has spread now. One is, therefore compelled to wonder as to what had transpired during that meeting between Chinese President and DG of WHO on January 29, and whether it had any role in the persistent advocacy of WHO against international travel restrictions on China. Was there any veiled objective behind all of this?

The curious case of stagnated numbers

Also, it is interesting to note that for several weeks now, China’s figures of COVID-19 affected persons and COVID related casualties have remained more or less stagnant. How has China achieved this feat when the rest of the world is grappling with rising numbers? Interestingly, this can only have two interpretations. Either China has found some magic antidote to contain it or it is deliberately containing the information on infection coming out of China. There cannot be any third alternative. If the former is true then one wonders why is China not sharing the same with the rest of the world. In case the reason for stagnated figures is the second option, i.e. control of information flow, then it is surely not helping the global fight against COVID 19 and one wonders why China is so keen to hide the real figures.

Is there also a sinister plot to acquire distressed companies abroad?

As things stand today, the world has been brought down to its knees even as production in China has started peaking again. With reports of Australian government declaring zero-dollar threshold for foreign investment to prevent Chinese state-run companies from buying up distressed Australian companies due to the COVID 19 crisis, the rumours of China’s frantic attempts of hostile acquisition of distressed companies in other countries during the global COVID-19 lockdown is coming true. Reports have also surfaced of similar interest being shown by Chinese financial behemoths exhibiting sudden interest in acquiring Indian financial assets due to plummeting valuations of local companies that can make them easy targets in the bourses. The moot question is that when the rest of the world is worried about an impending global economic crisis, where is China getting funds to acquire distressed companies in COVID affected countries? Or is it that they had kept the funds ready for a situation like this? Did they plan for it?

No direct accusation but no clean chit either

On a concluding note, one may say that even if China cannot be accused directly for the present global crisis due to lack of conclusive evidence as of yet, certainly it is too early to give them a clean chit either given its history of laboratory leaks, lack of regulation of wet markets, an alleged crackdown on whistle-blowers, lack of transparency, alleged attempts of taking unholy advantage of the global crisis to acquire financial and industrial assets in crisis-ridden countries, and a whole host of other unanswered questions whose list is just too long.

Read: After Blocking US Funding For WHO, Donald Trump Now Set To Hold Second G7 Meet On COVID-19

Disclaimer: Author of this article, Pathikrit Payne is a New Delhi based Geopolitical Analyst. The views and opinions expressed within the article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing do not reflect the views of Republic TV/ Republic World/ ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd.