The Chinese (and the US, as their funding was involved) could begin with transparency over all activities at the Wuhan lab. One-sided demands for transparency are not demands for transparency.
I would like transparency for the Wuhan lab, but the Chinese don’t want to give the world even more evidence for the lab leak so that’s likely not in the cards.
In any case, it’s important to react to the Chinese demands with “here’s what we want from you in terms of biosafety transparency in return for the transparency that you demand” instead of calling their demands nonsensical.
The thing to demand in return would be transparency about everything happening at the Wuhan lab. The problem is that the US is as implicated as the Chinese in that. Neither of the major parties in whatever happened there have an interest in a real investigation. Every other supposed investigation into the origins of the pandemic is a sideshow.
Neither of the major parties in whatever happened there have an interest in a real investigation.
That means that it’s not a smart demand and unlikely to lead anywhere productive. COVID-19 quite clearly escaped from the Wuhan lab and they Chinese are not in a position to admit that.
On the other hand there are possible deals for more transparency that would be useful.
The Chinese (and the US, as their funding was involved) could begin with transparency over all activities at the Wuhan lab. One-sided demands for transparency are not demands for transparency.
I would like transparency for the Wuhan lab, but the Chinese don’t want to give the world even more evidence for the lab leak so that’s likely not in the cards.
In any case, it’s important to react to the Chinese demands with “here’s what we want from you in terms of biosafety transparency in return for the transparency that you demand” instead of calling their demands nonsensical.
The thing to demand in return would be transparency about everything happening at the Wuhan lab. The problem is that the US is as implicated as the Chinese in that. Neither of the major parties in whatever happened there have an interest in a real investigation. Every other supposed investigation into the origins of the pandemic is a sideshow.
That means that it’s not a smart demand and unlikely to lead anywhere productive. COVID-19 quite clearly escaped from the Wuhan lab and they Chinese are not in a position to admit that.
On the other hand there are possible deals for more transparency that would be useful.
It’s not just that it’s a one-sided demand—the US and Ukraine are already declaring exactly what they do, publicly.