China clamping down on COVID-19 research: report

Reports that Beijing is vetting academic research into the origins of coronavirus have alarmed Australian academics, who say the stifling of information could harm us all.

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ACADEMIC research into the origins of coronavirus will have to be vetted by government officials before it can be published, according to a disturbing new report out of China.

Two Chinese universities posted government directives stipulating all research into the origins of the virus were to be vetted by authorities, CNN reported.

The online posts by Fudan University in Shanghai and China University of Geoscience in Wuhan were deleted after CNN made enquiries. Cached versions of the documents remain online.

According to CNN, the directives mandate that papers on the origin of COVID-19 be “strictly and tightly managed”, involving oversight from the university administration and a task force of the State Council.

Professor Clive Hamilton, author of the book Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia, said the directive follows earlier propaganda efforts by Beijing to “control the narrative” by promulgating “outlandish theories” about the origin of the virus. According to one of these stories, the virus was actually brought to China by US troops, while according to another the virus originated in Italy, Prof Hamilton said.

Professor Clive Hamilton says the silencing of Chinese academics could harm us all. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

“It’s very consistent with the news that we’ve been getting out of China for a couple of months now,” he said. “Chinese scientists have been publishing world leading information on the virus, its nature and it origin, and they have been silenced and disciplined. Some have gone off the radar, so that has meant that the world is deprived of important information about COVID-19.”

The reported origin of COVID-19 in the live animal markets of Wuhan has proved a touchy issue for Beijing, with US President Donald Trump’s repeated use of the term “Chinese virus” in press conferences prompting a telephone call from Chinese President Xi Jinping on March 26, AFP reported.

The origin of the virus in Wuhan was “probably due to lax or irresponsibly regulation” and “undermines Beijing’s claim to be a responsible global power and to run a government which is more effective than democracies like the US,” Prof Hamilton said.

“The basic lesson of this … is everything that the Chinese government says is spin at best and lies at worst.”

“Unfortunately this development means that collaborations between Chinese scientists and western scientists become much more difficult, and that means that the flow of scientific information between scientists in China and outside of China is being choked off – and that harms everyone,” Prof Hamilton said.

Professor James Laurenceson says Beijing’s ‘instinct to control information’ was reasserting itself. Picture: Hollie Adams

Prof James Laurenceson, Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at Sydney’s University of Technology, said the initial spread of COVID-19 revealed a “governance system that stifles rather than promotes the free and transparent flow of information”, and this report suggested Beijing’s “instinct to control information” was reasserting itself.

“The Chinese government has said repeatedly over the past month that the origins of COVID-19 should be determined by the science not politics. If reported accurately, this new directive plainly contradicts that,” Prof Laurenceson said.

“From an Australia perspective such actions are disappointing because they undercut mutual trust. Canberra would no doubt prefer a situation where Beijing could be taken at its word.”

Originally published as China clamping down on COVID-19 research: report