Stupid Leaders: China Ed.

A joint World Health Organization-China report on the origins of the coronavirus says it most probably jumped from animals to humans via an intermediate animal host, downplays the possibility it leaked from a lab and suggests next steps in a complex search mired in controversy, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post.

The report, set to be released Tuesday, offers the most detailed look yet at what happened in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and early 2020. However, the findings are far from conclusive and will be overshadowed by questions about China’s lack of transparency — and the WHO’s apparent inability to press for more.

The story goes on to retell the fact that the Chinese initially tried to hush up reports of the Covid virus, including arresting those first reporting it.

That's an important bit of the story that cannot be overtold. The instinct of the Chinese buraucracy is to cover up shit. This isn't a fature of the Communist party, it's the way things have been for over a thousand years. Nobody curries favor by making the emperor look bad.

But the problem here is that by not being fully transparent, by insisting that things be approved by the politruks, the Chinese are iving oxygen to the QAnon-grade conspiracy theorists.