The Chinese Communist Party (which runs China) have lied about the Wuhan virus from the start: its origins, that it couldn’t be passed human-to-human, and that “others” are somehow responsible for its spread around the world.
Zhao Lijian, an official in the Chinese foreign ministry tweeted out on 13 March that “Patient Zero” is an American:
2/2 CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation! pic.twitter.com/vYNZRFPWo3
— Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) March 12, 2020
Low-level guys don’t make these kinds of inflammatory announcements unless approved by very senior people in the Chinese regime. That propaganda campaign has continued unabated since then, with the usual assist from American media who play the equivocation game without questioning the ChiComs’ claims. NBC News reported the claim as news without questioning its veracity while The Washington Post played the back-and-forth between Beijing and Washington as an unresolved dispute. Whatever it takes for American media to provide credibility to our adversaries while undermining the Trump administration.
As recently as this Wednesday, the ChiComs continued to propagate the party line that “Patient Zero” is an American. Here is a “news” report from the CCP-controlled Global Times:
Chinese netizens and experts urge the US authority to release health and infection information of the US military delegation which came to Wuhan for the Military World Games in October to end the conjecture about US military personnel bringing COVID-19 to China.
An American journalist claimed one US military athlete in the delegation could be patient zero of the deadly new disease.
George Webb, an investigative journalist in Washington, DC claimed in recent videos and tweets that he believes Maatje Benassi, an armed diplomatic driver and cyclist who was in Wuhan in October for the cycling competition in the Military World Games, could be patient zero of COVID-19 in Wuhan.
Quoting someone whom the US media maintain is a practitioner of “far-right conspiracy theories” is going to make it harder for the WaPo to support the CCP party line, but the ChiComs are almost as shameless as the WaPo (the king of unnamed sources) in whom they cite in their articles.
Be that as it may, methinks the ChiComs failed to fully coordinate all aspects of their blame-shifting game. Note what the Global Times also posted a mere 14 hours later on their website:
The city of Beijing is accelerating procedures to pass a set of regulations that prohibits hunting and consumption of all wild animals, which are believed to be the source of the outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19). It is also planning to establish wildlife disease monitor stations in areas populated with wild animals.
The draft regulations also ban the consumption of all terrestrial wild animals and certain aquatic wild animals, and forbid markets from trading in them. A penalty of two to 15 times the price of the consumed wild animal will be enforced if the regulations are violated, while the Rural Committee of the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress suggested this fine should be even higher.
Other related actions such as the unauthorized freeing of animals and trading of wild animals under the guise of sheltering and rescue will be punished, the report said, noting that anyone can report violations to related authorities.
Why implement these regulations now? There are no such things as coincidences. Banning the consumption of, and trading in, wild animals is a tacit admission that the ChiComs know perfectly well where the Wuhan virus originated, and that “Patient Zero” is a Chinese, not a US soldier. Somehow, that report slipped by the censors, as it blows holes in their propaganda blaming the US for the virus outbreak.
Given the steadfast intransigence of the ChiComs in admitting the origin of the virus, as well as the unlikelihood that they can concoct a believable alternative theory, the only way we will ever know for sure will be through an independent outside investigation or through the actions of a Chinese defector with direct knowledge and evidence (data and reports). The US government (and indeed the World Health Organization) need to demand an independent investigation while the rest of us hope and pray that a defector materializes with the goods.
One thing for certain: the ChiComs’ continuing attempts at obstruction, distraction, piety, feigned altruism, and chutzpah (e.g., providing assistance to countries they infected) will not make this issue go away any time soon. I doubt that the ChiComs will ever admit their responsibility, let alone identify who “Patient Zero” really is.
The end.
