1. @derspiegel story about Xi Jinping pressuring WHO to downplay pandemic makes sense.
January 20: Xi came out of hiding and made his first public comment about the virus, 3 weeks after the epidemic officially began. @JerryDunleavy
January 20: Xi came out of hiding and made his first public comment about the virus, 3 weeks after the epidemic officially began. @JerryDunleavy
2. January 20: Chinese Communist Party rolls out a prepared campaign to make Xi Jinping look like a bold, decisive leader. So it makes sense that Xi, or someone on his behalf, would call on @WHO to play along. xinhuanet.com/english/2020-0…
3. Xi Jinping and the rest of the CCP leadership had known for at least 6 days about the danger of the epidemic, allowing it to spread so the Party could prepare to make Xi look like a hero. apnews.com/68a9e1b91de4ff…
4. WHO's position up to that point, while the CCP was covering things up, was that there was 'no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission' of the Wuhan Virus. As has been its practice, WHO based its statement on 'Chinese authorities.' 
5. Here's the link to WHO's January 14 statement - issued the day top CCP leaders reportedly learned of the nature of the danger - which WHO maintained until top CCP leaders stopped covering up the pandemic.
6. January 21: People's Daily, the Chinese Communist Party outlet that issues the authoritative party line for others to follow, makes its first official statement about the dangers of the virus. washingtonpost.com/world/2020/02/…
7. Since January 21 marks the first day of the new Chinese Communist Party line about the nature of what is becoming a pandemic, it is logical that Xi Jinping would want @DrTedros of WHO to hold off until that line could be implemented.
8. WHO held off until January 23 to call the coronavirus outbreak a "public health emergency of international concern." This is consistent with @derspiegel's report that Xi wanted WHO to hold off until the CCP could get its part line in order. washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…
9. A sign that the CCP itself didn't have its party line in order yet is that party outlets were calling the virus "Wuhan pneumonia" & "Wuhan coronavirus." It would take days before CCP would object to that as provocative and racist. See our timeline: centerforsecuritypolicy.org/wuhan-virus/
10. On January 26, a Washington Post analysis explained how WHO is "unavoidably political" and under Chinese pressure. "Politics is always involved ... Like or not, the WHO is a political organization as well as a scientific one." washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…
11. We commented on the above Post analysis at the time on our Center Security Policy chronology: "This leads to questions about whether WHO was awaiting instructions from Beijing, given Xi’s new line." centerforsecuritypolicy.org/wuhan-virus/
12. After saying "Wuhan coronavirus" and "Wuhan pneumonia," CCP decides that the names go against the party line that holds the CCP blameless. CCP declares that the terminology is racist. WHO gives the disease a catchy official name on Feb 11. who.int/emergencies/di…
13. The entire CCP effort deflected responsibility away from the Chinese regime while its disinformation campaign would blame the US military specifically. WHO played along the whole time. Public evidence reasonably supports @derspiegel's intelligence report.
