Coronavirus: Xi Jinping applauds the Party's effectiveness. Experts and scientists express doubts

In a Politburo meeting, televised to all the counties and military regiments, the Chinese president exalts the role of the Party in managing the crisis. The epidemic "has not changed the long-term fundamentals of China's economic growth." But Xi also kept silent about the infection alarm. Scientists: the virus had been present in Wuhan since November. And it came "from outside" the fish market. The hypothesis of the virus research laboratory (for war purposes).

Rome (AsiaNews) - The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party has given "accurate judgments"; he "operated with timing"; has taken "effective measures" on the epidemic. This is what Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a meeting yesterday in the presence of almost all the politburo personalities. According to Xinhua, the meeting was broadcast widley by teleconference to involve every county government and every military regiment.

Highlighting decisiveness, power and farsightedness, Xi listed the resolving steps to managing the crisis: curbing the spread of the epidemic; increase treatments and cures; prevent the virus from spreading to Beijing; support stimulus policies for the national economy; stabilize foreign trade and investment. He specified that the epidemic "has not changed the long-term fundamentals of China's economic growth."

“The effectiveness of the prevention and control work has once again demonstrated the significant advantages of the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system with Chinese characteristics,” he said.

The high-level meeting and Xi's words are an attempt to counter all the criticisms that are inundating online discussion - and that are promptly canceled - against the way in which the crisis was managed and which even questions Xi's leadership .

In fact, by reconstructing all the stages of the epidemic, it is now clear that the authorities knew of the spread of the virus since last December, but they silenced the doctors who had reported the fact, raising the alarm only on January 23.

Xi himself is implicated in this delay: Qiushi, an intellectual publication of the Party, in its edition of February 15 states that Xi knew of the epidemic as of January 7 and that that day gave indications on how to deal with the crisis. But this claim clashes with that of the mayor of Wuhan who had confessed to the delays on television, declaring that he needed Beijing's permission to sound the alarm about the coronavirus.

More and more experts are pointing the finger at the lack of freedom of speech that has led to the suffocation of the warnings from the base and against the management of power from top down, which caused the spread of the virus in China and in the world.

Some scientists are also casting doubt on Xi’s assurances. According to a study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Institute for Brain Research, published on February 21, the virus appeared in Wuhan as early as November 2019 and stabilized in the city’s fish market in early December. So far, this market has been considered the epicenter of the epidemic, given that wild animals such as bats, snakes and pangolins are sold in it, believed to be the means that caused the virus to pass to humans.

However, the study doubts that the virus originated in the fish market and suggests that it was "imported from the outside".

The new scientific hypothesis reopens the suspicion that the coronavirus originates from a laboratory located near Wuhan, dedicated to research on viruses (according to some for war purposes). Up to now many have considered this idea a "conspiracy". Maybe now it is becoming more credible. But the lack of free speech makes it difficult to arrive at the truth.