I think it is safe to assume at this point that most people know that the Chinese government is not always exactly honest about what kinds of things happen in their country. However, in my opinion these new developments are particularly striking. The Chinese government is actively trying to restrict the academic research of the deadly disease that is currently causing a pandemic on our planet. This CNN article details the efforts by the Chinese government to try to control the narrative around China and the coronavirus. “Under the new policy, all academic papers on Covid-19 will be subject to extra vetting before being submitted for publication. Studies on the origin of the virus will receive extra scrutiny and must be approved by central government officials, according to the now-deleted posts…The increased scrutiny appears to be the latest effort by the Chinese government to control the narrative on the origins of the coronavirus pandemic”. Also according to the article, some Chinese scientists and researchers have published findings concerned with the virus, and those findings seem to contradict the official government account of the outbreak. The Chinese government has obviously seen findings like these and are doing their best to squash them.
I can understand that the Chinese government does not want the PR disaster that would come with accepting that the outbreak began in China, but I think that there are far more important things to worry about right now other than how your country looks. The health of every human being on the planet is at stake right now and China is undermining important research that could help us end this pandemic.