The coronavirus outbreak, which is believed to have originated in China’s city of Wuhan, may not be the result of a containment failure at a bioagent laboratory, but one can hardly be criticized for wondering. The theory, after all, is a credible possibility, and that means Sen. Tom Cotton’s otherwise conspiratorial commentary on this issue is not nuts.
Cotton has spent the past few weeks suggesting that the coronavirus outbreak may have come from the bioagent lab in Wuhan. As Bill Gertz first reported, Wuhan is home to one of China’s most advanced bioagent research laboratories. Gertz is also likely correct that the facility retained a compartmentalized bioweapons lab. That gives context to Cotton’s reference on Sunday to a Chinese Global Times article suggesting that the outbreak may not have originated in a Wuhan food market, as Beijing originally claimed.
Well, look at that. The Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda rag finally admits what I’ve said for a month: coronavirus didn’t start in Wuhan food market. So where did it originate? Time for answers from CCP. https://t.co/UTvcjvrHNz
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) February 22, 2020
This is notable because Global Times, which is indeed China’s foremost Western-focused propaganda outlet, wouldn’t have run this story unless Xi Jinping wanted it to run. And that means China is using this story either because it A) wants to draw attention away from the biofacility in Wuhan, B) believes foreign powers will find out that the Wuhan market story was a deliberate deception, or C) both A and B.
We don’t know which option it is, but we do know that Beijing has now come to the conclusion that its original story will not hold. Again, if not, the Global Times story would never have been published.
It’s critical to note here that the Chinese Communist Party’s inherent impulse is toward control and the appearance of infallibility. This is why Xi’s reaction to the coronavirus outbreak has been so similar to the Soviets’ reaction to the Chernobyl disaster. The regime is caught between confronting a truth and admitting its own flaws, or hiding a truth that cannot be hidden for long and covering up its flaws.
This leads us back to Cotton. We still don’t know exactly where and how this outbreak originated, or how effectively China has responded to it, but we have ever-increasing reasons to ask questions.
