China clamps down in hidden hunt for coronavirus origins

Deep within the lush mountain valleys of southern China lies the doorway to a mine shaft that when harbored bats with the closest recognized relative of the Covid-19 virus.
The space is of intense scientific curiosity as a result of it could maintain clues to the origins of the coronavirus that has killed greater than 1.7 million folks worldwide. Yet for scientists and journalists, it has change into a black gap of no data due to political sensitivity and secrecy.
A bat analysis group visiting not too long ago managed to take samples however had them confiscated, two folks conversant in the matter mentioned. Specialists in coronaviruses have been ordered to not converse to the press. And a group of Associated Press journalists was tailed by plainclothes police in a number of vehicles who blocked entry to roads and websites in late November.
More than a 12 months because the first recognized individual was contaminated with the coronavirus, an AP investigation exhibits the Chinese authorities is strictly controlling all analysis into its origins, clamping down on some whereas actively selling fringe theories that it might have come from outdoors China.

The authorities is handing out tons of of hundreds of {dollars} in grants to scientists researching the virus’ origins in southern China and affiliated with the army, the AP has discovered. But it’s monitoring their findings and mandating that the publication of any knowledge or analysis should be authorised by a brand new job pressure managed by China’s cabinet, below direct orders from President Xi Jinping, in keeping with inside paperwork obtained by The AP. A uncommon leak from throughout the authorities, the handfuls of pages of unpublished paperwork affirm what many have lengthy suspected: The clampdown comes from the highest.
As a end result, little or no has been made public. Authorities are severely limiting data and impeding cooperation with worldwide scientists.
“What did they find?” requested Gregory Gray, a Duke University epidemiologist who oversees a lab in China learning the transmission of infectious ailments from animals to folks. “Maybe their data were not conclusive, or maybe they suppressed the data for some political reason. I don’t know…I wish I did.”
The AP investigation was based mostly on dozens of interviews with Chinese and overseas scientists and officers, together with public notices, leaked emails, inside knowledge and the paperwork from China’s cabinet and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. It reveals a sample of presidency secrecy and top-down management that has been evident all through the pandemic.
As the AP beforehand documented, this tradition has delayed warnings in regards to the pandemic, blocked the sharing of data with the World Health Organization and hampered early testing. Scientists conversant in China’s public well being system say the identical practices apply to delicate analysis.
Villagers wave away journalists visiting a village close to Danaoshan in southern China’s Yunnan province on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. A mine shaft within the space as soon as harbored bats contaminated with the closest recognized relative of the COVID-19 virus. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
“They only select people they can trust, those that they can control,” mentioned a public well being skilled who works frequently with the China CDC, declining to be recognized out of worry of retribution. “Military teams and others are working hard on this, but whether it gets published all depends on the outcome.”
The pandemic has crippled Beijing’s status on the worldwide stage, and China’s leaders are cautious of any findings that would counsel they have been negligent in its unfold. The Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Health Commission, that are managing analysis into the coronavirus’ origins, didn’t reply to requests for remark.
“The novel coronavirus has been discovered in many parts of the world,” China’s overseas ministry mentioned in a fax. “Scientists should carry out international scientific research and cooperation on a global scale.”
Some Chinese scientists say little has been shared just because nothing of significance has been found.
“We’ve been looking, but we haven’t found it,” mentioned Zhang Yongzhen, a famend Chinese virologist.
China’s leaders are removed from alone in politicizing analysis into the origins of the virus. In April, President Donald Trump shelved a US-funded undertaking to establish harmful animal ailments in China and Southeast Asia, successfully severing ties between Chinese and American scientists and complicating the seek for virus origins. Trump additionally has accused China of setting off the pandemic by means of an accident at a Wuhan lab — a idea that some consultants say can’t be dominated out however as but has no proof behind it.
Research into Covid-19’s origins is crucial to the prevention of future pandemics. Although a World Health Organization worldwide group plans to go to China in early January to research what began the pandemic, its members and agenda needed to be authorised by China.
People eat in a restaurant outdoors of Kunming in southern China’s Yunnan province on Monday, Nov. 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Some public well being consultants warn that China’s refusal to grant additional entry to worldwide scientists has jeopardized the worldwide collaboration that pinpointed the supply of the SARS outbreak practically 20 years in the past. Jonna Mazet, a founding govt director of the UC Davis One Health Institute, mentioned the dearth of collaboration between Chinese and US scientists was “a disappointment” and the lack of American scientists to work in China “devastating.”
“There’s so much speculation around the origins of this virus,” Mazet mentioned. “We need to step back…and let scientists get the real answer without the finger-pointing.”
The hidden hunt for the origins of Covid-19 exhibits how the Chinese authorities has tried to steer the narrative.
The search began within the Huanan Seafood market in Wuhan, a sprawling, low-slung advanced the place lots of the first human coronavirus instances have been detected. Scientists initially suspected the virus got here from wild animals offered available in the market, resembling civet cats implicated within the unfold of SARS.
In mid-December final 12 months, Huanan vendor Jiang Dafa began noticing folks have been falling in poor health. Among the primary was a part-time employee in his 60s who helped clear carcasses at a stall; quickly, a pal he performed chess with additionally fell in poor health. A 3rd, a seafood monger in his 40s, was contaminated and later died.
Patients started trickling into close by hospitals, triggering alarms by late December that alerted the China CDC. CDC chief Gao Fu instantly despatched a group to research.
At first, analysis seemed to be shifting swiftly.
Overnight on Jan. 1, the market all of the sudden was ordered shut, barring distributors from fetching their belongings, Jiang mentioned. China CDC researchers collected 585 environmental samples from door handles, sewage and the ground of the market, and authorities sprayed the advanced down with sanitizer. Later, they might cart out every part inside and incinerate it.
Internal China CDC knowledge obtained by the AP exhibits that by Jan. 10 and 11, researchers have been sequencing dozens of environmental samples from Wuhan. Gary Kobinger, a Canadian microbiologist advising WHO, emailed his colleagues to share his issues that the virus originated on the market.
A gaggle claiming to be native villagers use autos to dam the roads resulting in a mineshaft close to Danaoshan in southern China’s Yunnan province on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2020. The mine shaft as soon as harbored bats contaminated with the closest recognized relative of the COVID-19 virus. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
“This corona(virus) is very close to SARS,” he wrote on Jan. 13. “If we put aside an accident…then I would look at the bats in these markets (sold and ‘wild’).”
By late January, Chinese state media introduced that 33 of the environmental samples had examined optimistic. In a report back to WHO, officers mentioned 11 specimens have been greater than 99% much like the brand new coronavirus. They additionally advised the UN well being company that rats and mice have been widespread available in the market, and that many of the optimistic samples have been clustered in an space the place distributors traded in wildlife.
In the meantime, Jiang prevented telling folks he labored at Huanan due to the stigma. He criticized the political tussle between China and the US
“It’s pointless to blame anyone for this disease,” Jiang mentioned.
As the virus continued spreading quickly into February, Chinese scientists printed a burst of analysis papers on Covid-19. Then a paper by two Chinese scientists proposed with out concrete proof that the virus might have leaked from a Wuhan laboratory close to the market. It was later taken down, however it raised the necessity for picture management.
Internal paperwork present that the state quickly started requiring all coronavirus research in China to be authorised by high-level authorities officers — a coverage that critics say paralyzed analysis efforts.
A discover from a China CDC lab on February 24 put in new approval processes for publication below “important instructions” from Chinese President Xi Jinping. Other notices ordered CDC employees to not share any knowledge, specimens or different data associated to the coronavirus with outdoors establishments or people.
Then on March 2, Xi emphasised “coordination” on coronavirus analysis, state media reported.
A person stands contained in the deserted Wanling cave close to Manhaguo village in southern China’s Yunnan province on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020. Villagers mentioned the cave had been used as a sacred altar presided over by a Buddhist monk _ exactly the form of contact between bats and people who alarms scientists. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
The subsequent day, China’s cabinet, the State Council, centralized all Covid-19 publication below a particular job pressure. The discover, obtained by the AP and marked “not to be made public,” was way more sweeping in scope than the sooner CDC notices, making use of to all universities, firms and medical and analysis establishments.
The order mentioned communication and publication of analysis needed to be orchestrated like “a game of chess” below directions from Xi, and propaganda and public opinion groups have been to “guide publication.” It went on to warn that those that publish with out permission, “causing serious adverse social impact, shall be held accountable.”
“The regulations are very strict, and they don’t make any sense,” mentioned a former China CDC deputy director, who declined to be named as a result of they have been advised to not converse to the media. “I think it’s political, because people overseas could find things being said there that might contradict what China says, so it’s all being controlled.”
After the key orders, the tide of analysis papers slowed to a trickle. Although China CDC researcher Liu Jun returned to the market practically 20 instances to gather some 2,000 samples over the next months, nothing was launched about what they revealed.
On May 25, CDC chief Gao lastly broke the silence across the market in an interview with China’s Phoenix TV. He mentioned that, in contrast to the environmental samples, no animal samples from the market had examined optimistic.
The announcement shocked scientists who didn’t even know Chinese officers had taken samples from animals. It additionally dominated out the market because the doubtless supply of the virus, together with additional analysis that confirmed lots of the first instances had no ties to it.
With the market proving a lifeless finish, scientists turned extra consideration to looking for the virus at its doubtless supply: Bats.
Nearly a thousand miles away from the moist market in Wuhan, bats inhabit the maze of underground limestone caves in Yunnan province. With its wealthy, loamy soil, fog banks and dense plant development, this space in southern China bordering Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar is among the most biologically numerous on earth.
At one Yunnan cave visited by the AP, with thick roots hanging over the doorway, bats fluttered out at nightfall and flew over the roofs of a close-by small village. White droppings splattered the bottom close to an altar within the rear of the cave, and Buddhist prayer strings of pink and yellow twine hung from the stalactites. Villagers mentioned the cave had been used as a sacred place presided over by a Buddhist monk from Thailand.
Contact like this between bats and other people praying, searching or mining in caves alarms scientists. The coronavirus’ genetic code is strikingly much like that of bat coronaviruses, and most scientists suspect Covid-19 jumped into people both immediately from a bat or through an middleman animal.
Villagers go about their night close to posters depicting Mao Zedong in Manhaguo village in southern China’s Yunnan province on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020. Residents mentioned a close-by cave had been used as a sacred altar presided over by a Buddhist monk _ exactly the form of contact between bats and people who alarms scientists. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Since bats harboring coronaviruses are present in China and all through Southeast Asia, the wild animal host of Covid-19 might be anyplace within the area, mentioned Linfa Wang at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.
“There is a bat somewhere with a 99.9% similar virus to the coronavirus,” Wang mentioned. “Bats don’t respect these borders.
Covid-19 analysis is continuing in international locations resembling Thailand, the place Dr. Supaporn Wacharapluesadee, a coronavirus skilled, is main groups of scientists deep into the countryside to gather samples from bats. During one expedition in August, Supaporn advised the AP the virus might be discovered “anywhere” there have been bats.
Chinese scientists shortly began testing potential animal hosts. Records present that Xia Xueshan, an infectious ailments skilled, acquired a 1.4 million RMB ($214,000) grant to display animals in Yunnan for Covid-19. State media reported in February that his group collected tons of of samples from bats, snakes, bamboo rats and different animals, and ran an image of masked scientists in white lab coats huddled round a big, caged porcupine.
Then the federal government restrictions kicked in. Data on the samples nonetheless has not been made public, and Xia didn’t reply to requests for an interview. Although Xia has co-authored greater than a dozen papers this 12 months, an AP assessment exhibits, onlytwo have been on Covid-19, and neither centered on its origins.
Today, the caves that scientists as soon as surveyed are below shut watch by the authorities. Security brokers tailed the AP group in three places throughout Yunnan, and stopped journalists from visiting the cave the place researchers in 2017 recognized the species of bats chargeable for SARS. At an entrance to a second location, an enormous cave teeming with vacationers taking selfies, authorities shut the gate on the AP.
“We just got a call from the county,” mentioned a park official, earlier than an armed policeman confirmed up.
Particularly delicate is the mine shaft the place the closest relative of the Covid-19 virus — referred to as “RaTG13” — was discovered.
RaTG13 was found after an outbreak in 2012, when six males cleansing the bat-filled shaft fell in poor health with mysterious bouts of pneumonia, killing three. The Wuhan Institute of Virology and the China CDC each studied bat coronaviruses from this shaft. And though most scientists consider the Covid-19 virus had its origins in nature, some say it or a detailed relative might have been transported to Wuhan and leaked by mistake.
Wuhan Institute of Virology bat skilled Shi Zhengli has repeatedly denied this idea, however Chinese authorities haven’t but allowed overseas scientists in to research.
Huanan market vendor Jiang Dafa tends to his pigeons at dwelling in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei province on Oct. 22, 2020. China’s seek for the COVID-19 virus began within the Huanan Seafood market in Wuhan, a sprawling, low-slung advanced the place lots of the first human coronavirus instances have been detected. Scientists initially suspected the virus got here from wild animals offered available in the market. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
Some state-backed scientists say analysis is continuing as common. Famed virologist Zhang, who acquired a 1.5 million RMB ($230,000) grant to seek for the virus’ origins, mentioned partnering scientists are sending him samples from throughout, together with from bats in Guizhou in southern China and rats in Henan tons of of miles north.
“Bats, mice, are there any new coronaviruses in them? Do they have this particular coronavirus?” Zhang mentioned. “We’ve been doing this work for over a decade. It’s not like we just started today.”
Zhang declined to verify or touch upon experiences that his lab was briefly closed after publishing the virus’ genetic sequence forward of authorities. He mentioned he hasn’t heard of any particular restrictions on publishing papers, and the one assessment his papers undergo is a routine scientific one by his establishment.
But scientists with out state backing complain that getting approval to pattern animals in southern China is now extraordinarily tough, and that little is understood in regards to the findings of government-sponsored groups.
Even as they managed analysis inside China, Chinese authorities promoted theories that recommended the virus got here from elsewhere.
The authorities gave Bi Yuhai, the Chinese Academy of Sciences scientist tapped to spearhead origins analysis, a 1.5 million RMB grant ($230,000), information present. A paper co-authored by Bi recommended an outbreak in a Beijing market in June might have been attributable to packages of contaminated frozen fish from Europe.
China’s government-controlled media used the speculation to counsel the unique outbreak in Wuhan might have began with seafood imported from overseas — a notion worldwide scientists reject. WHO has mentioned it is rather unlikely that individuals might be contaminated with Covid-19 through packaged meals, and that it’s “highly speculative” to counsel Covid-19 didn’t begin in China. Bi didn’t reply to requests for an interview, and China has not offered sufficient virus samples for a definitive evaluation.
The Chinese state press additionally has broadly coated preliminary research from Europe suggesting Covid-19 was present in wastewater samples in Italy and Spain final 12 months. But scientists have largely dismissed these research, and the researchers themselves acknowledged they didn’t discover sufficient virus fragments to find out conclusively if it was the coronavirus.
And in the previous couple of weeks, Chinese state media has taken out of context analysis from a German scientist, deciphering it to counsel that the pandemic started in Italy. The scientist, Alexander Kekule, director of the Institute for Biosecurity Research, has mentioned repeatedly that he believes the virus first emerged in China.
Internal paperwork present the Chinese authorities additionally has sponsored research on the potential position of the Southeast Asian pangolin, a scaly anteater as soon as prized in conventional Chinese medication, as an middleman animal host. Within the span of three days in February, Chinese scientists put out fourseparatepaperson coronaviruses associated to Covid-19 in trafficked Malayan pangolins from Southeast Asia seized by customs officers in Guangdong.
But many consultants now say the speculation is unlikely. Wang of the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore mentioned the seek for the coronavirus in pangolins didn’t look like “scientifically driven.” He mentioned blood samples can be essentially the most conclusive proof of Covid-19’s presence within the uncommon mammals, and thus far, no incriminating matches have been discovered.
WHO has mentioned greater than 500 species of different animals, together with cats, ferrets and hamsters, are being studied as potential middleman hosts for Covid-19.
The Chinese authorities can be limiting and controlling the seek for affected person zero by means of the re-testing of outdated flu samples.
Chinese hospitals acquire hundreds of samples from sufferers with flu-like signs each week and retailer them in freezers. They might simply be examined once more for Covid-19, though politics might then decide whether or not the outcomes are made public, mentioned Ray Yip, the founding director of the US CDC workplace in China.
“They’d be crazy not to do it,” Yip mentioned. “The political leadership will wait for that information to see, does this information make China look stupid or not?…If it makes China look stupid, they won’t.”
In the US, CDC officers way back examined roughly 11,000 early samples collected below the flu surveillance program since Jan. 1. And in Italy, researchers not too long ago discovered a boy who had fallen in poor health in November 2019 and later examined optimistic for the coronavirus.
But in China, scientists have solely printed retrospective testing knowledge from two Wuhan flu surveillance hospitals — out of no less than 18 in Hubei province alone and properly over 500 throughout the nation. The knowledge consists of simply 520 samples out of the 330,000 collected in China final 12 months.
These monumental gaps within the analysis aren’t due simply to an absence of testing but additionally to an absence of transparency. Internal knowledge obtained by the AP exhibits that by Feb. 6, the Hubei CDC had examined over 100 samples in Huanggang, a metropolis southeast of Wuhan. But the outcomes haven’t been made public.
The little data that has dribbled out suggests the virus was circulating properly outdoors Wuhan in 2019 — a discovering that would elevate awkward questions for Chinese officers about their early dealing with of the outbreak. Chinese researchers discovered {that a} baby tons of of miles from Wuhan had fallen in poor health with the virus by Jan. 2, suggesting it was spreading broadly in December. But earlier samples weren’t examined, in keeping with a scientist with direct information of the research.
“There was a very deliberate choice of the time period to study, because going too early could have been too sensitive,” mentioned the scientist, who declined to be named out of worry of retribution.

A WHO report written in July however printed in November mentioned Chinese authorities had recognized 124 instances in December 2019, together with 5 instances outdoors Wuhan. Among WHO’s goals for its upcoming go to to China are evaluations of hospital information earlier than December.
Coronavirus skilled Peter Daszak, a member of the WHO group, mentioned figuring out the pandemic’s supply shouldn’t be used to assign guilt.
“We’re all part of this together,” he mentioned. “And until we realize that, we’re never going to get rid of this problem.”