What Will WHO Experts Find During Their Wuhan Trip?

The logo of the World Health Organization (WHO) at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on Jan. 30, 2020. (Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

Commentary

On Jan. 14, a team of experts from the World Health Organization was finally allowed to travel to Wuhan and investigate the origin of the CCP virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus. The announcement issued by the National Health Commission on Jan. 11 contained only a short sentence. It didn’t mention the length of the trip, nor did it specify a detailed itinerary. The trip takes place more than a year after the virus first emerged. It has since spread to 191 countries and regions.

Can WHO experts find the source of the CCP virus in Wuhan?

I think it’s unlikely. The reasons are as follows:

First, tracing the virus origin and tracing who’s responsible for its global spread are closely linked. If Wuhan is found to be the source of the pandemic, but the CCP allowed virus carriers to fly from Wuhan to other parts of the world—causing at least 93 million infections and more than 2 million deaths reported to date—the CCP will be held accountable. This is something the CCP is absolutely unwilling to face.

On May 19, 2020, under strong pressure from the international community, the World Health Assembly passed a resolution to investigate the source of the virus. WHO experts requested to visit Wuhan, but the CCP dragged its feet again and again for more than seven months. Why did it take so long? Some experts believe it was to clean up all the evidence at the scene of the virus outbreak.

Since the outbreak in 2020, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department repeatedly offered to send experts to China, but was rejected time and time again. In the end, China agreed that the U.S. experts could go to China with the WHO expert team. In February 2020, after a nine-day trip, Canadian Bruce Aylward, team leader of the WHO China Joint Mission, was asked by reporters in Geneva why he didn’t go through quarantine after visiting Wuhan. His answer accidentally revealed the fact that he hadn’t been to any “dirty areas” of the Wuhan hospital. In other words, the expert group only went where the CCP allowed and anything they saw and heard was carefully arranged.

Also, the CCP will silence all relevant voices. Yan Limeng, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong School of Public Health, fled to the United States to reveal the truths about the CCP virus. Officials from the Ministry of National Security went to her hometown of Qingdao to harass her family. She said that since mid-May 2020, the CCP has attacked her on the internet, spread rumors, and destroyed her reputation. The CCP set up a fake Facebook account with her name and resume, she alleged. The CCP lied about her being kidnapped in the United States, and claimed that she was lying and mentally ill. Yan’s mother was subsequently arrested.

The CCP has brutally clamped down on those Chinese citizens who requested to investigate the source of the virus and hold leaders accountable. For example, Ren Zhiqiang, former business tycoon and “red princeling,” was sentenced to 18 years for his outspoken criticism of the CCP; Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist who went to Wuhan to investigate the epidemic, was sentenced to four years in prison; and citizen journalist Fang Bin has disappeared, with many suspecting that he’s been detained by authorities.

The CCP has repeatedly retaliated against Australia, which proposed an independent investigation into the source of the virus. The Chinese regime has banned imports of Australian barley, imposed tariffs of 107.1 to 212.1 percent on Australian wine, blacklisted six Australian beef suppliers, and placed other restrictions on imports of Australian coal, cotton, and lobster.

The CCP continues to blame other countries as the source of the virus. On March 12, 2020, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian posted a tweet claiming, without evidence, that the virus was brought into Wuhan by the U.S. Army. After that, the “blaming” wars commenced. Chinese state media have claimed, on different occasions, that the virus originated in Italy, Spain, Germany, France, India, Bangladesh, Australia, Italy, Russia, Greece, and Czech Republic.

Since the Australian government proposed in April 2020 that an independent global investigation into the source of the virus be conducted, the international community has begun the research.

In early July 2020, the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response was set up, with former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark and former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf serving as co-chairs.

Some experts and officials outside of China have raised the possibility that the CCP virus leaked out of a virology lab in Wuhan.

The CCP will definitely do everything possible to conceal the truth about the source of the virus—deceit is in its nature. But nothing can be kept hidden forever. The truth will eventually come to light.

Wang Youqun graduated with a doctorate in law from the Renmin University of China. He once worked as a copywriter for Wei Jianxing (1931–2015), a member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee from 1997 to 2002.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.