US security chief praises Chinese whistleblower’s big act of bravery
A senior US security chief has praised a coronavirus whistleblower as the country faces more pressure to reveal what it knows of the origins of the virus.
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A senior US security chief has used a speech delivered in Mandarin to rally the Chinese people to stand up to Communist Party officials with “big acts of bravery”.
US Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger used the widely broadcast speech on the 101st anniversary of China’s May 4th protest movement to praise coronavirus whistleblower Dr Li Wenliang.
It comes amid a diplomatic row between the US and China that saw the World Health Organisation yesterday say it had received no evidence to back up US President Donald Trump’s claims that the virus originated in a Chinese laboratory.
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In his speech at the University of Virginia Mr Pottinger said the heirs of the May 4th movement today “are civic-minded citizens who commit small acts of bravery. And sometimes big acts of bravery.”
He singled out Dr Wenliang for warning colleagues about a new virus on WeChat which led to him being interrogated by police who made him sign a “confession”.
“Anyone tempted to believe this was just a case of overzealous local police, take note: China’s central government aired a news story about Dr. Li’s ‘rumour-mongering’,” Mr Pottinger said.
“Then Dr Li did a big brave thing. He went public with his experience of being silenced by the police. The whole world paid close attention,” said Mr Pottinger.
Dr Li’s death from the disease “felt like the loss of a relative for people around the world,” he said. And he quoted Dr Li’s deathbed comment to a reporter: “I think there should be more than one voice in a healthy society, and I don’t approve of using public power for excessive interference.”
Mr Pottinger listed other people who had gone missing after speaking out and predicted: “When small acts of bravery are stamped out by governments, big acts of bravery follow.”
Mr Pottinger’s speech came after claims by US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said there was a “significant amount of evidence” that the virus had originated in a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
World Health Organisation official Dr Michael Ryan said in Geneva: “From our perspective, this remains speculative.
“But like any evidence-based organization, we would be very willing to receive any information that purports to the origin of the virus.”
Dr Ryan said if the evidence existed it would be up to the US to share it and repeated the advice it had received so far was that the coronavirus was of natural origin. And he warned against there being an investigation.
“If this is projected as aggressive investigation of wrongdoing, that is much more difficult to deal with. That’s a political issue,” he said.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday repeated that a Chinese wet market was “the most likely” source of the virus and has called for a transparent review into the outbreak and the WHO’s response to it.
The Daily Telegraph revealed last weekend details from a secret government dossier that laid out China’s mis-handling of the coronavirus outbreak.