As the WHO-led coronavirus origins probe finalizes its report a month after its Wuhan mission, its constraints are becoming clear. @drewhinshaw@betswrites@JNBPage on how little power it had to conduct a thorough probe. on.wsj.com/3ttUjfW
@drewhinshaw@betswrites@JNBPage The WHO asked the U.S. to recommend experts, but didn’t contact the three that Washington put forward, though it added another U.S. scientist to the team. Beijing hasn’t publicly identified most Chinese participants or shared raw data on the first cases. on.wsj.com/3ttUjfW
@drewhinshaw@betswrites@JNBPage China resisted pressure for an investigation it saw as an attempt to assign blame, delayed the probe for months, secured veto rights over participants and insisted its scope encompass other countries as well. on.wsj.com/3ttUjfW
@drewhinshaw@betswrites@JNBPage As for the U.S., the Trump administration’s early assertions that the virus may have come from a laboratory soured diplomatic efforts to press China to allow a more rigorous probe; it also quit the WHO. on.wsj.com/3ttUjfW
@drewhinshaw@betswrites@JNBPage The WHO's governing executive board, which includes representatives from 34 governments, wasn’t brought in to consult on negotiating the terms of research. Instead, the WHO hashed out those details directly with China. on.wsj.com/3ttUjfW
@drewhinshaw@betswrites@JNBPage The team’s first visit was to a hospital where they met a doctor Beijing feted as the first to raise alarms through official channels. The next day, they went to an exhibition commemorating China’s “decisive victory" and paying tribute to Xi’s leadership. on.wsj.com/3ttUjfW
Yang Jiechi to Tony Blinken: "China has made decisive achievements and important strategic gains in fighting COVID-19…China’s per capita GDP is only one-fifth of that of the United States, but we have managed to end absolute poverty for all people." bit.ly/3lvNVlv
Yang: "The United States has its style—United States-style democracy—and China has the Chinese-style democracy. It is not just up to the American people, but also the people of the world to evaluate how the United States has done in…its own democracy." bit.ly/3lvNVlv
Yang: "It is important for the United States to change its own image and to stop advancing its own democracy in the rest of the world. Many people within the United States actually have little confidence in the democracy of the United States." bit.ly/3lvNVlv
Matt Pottinger: "The Chinese government was not sharing useful data with anyone in the world. The World Health Organization was parroting misinformation about this virus. They…were claiming that it is not featuring significant human-to-human spread." cbsn.ws/3kco6Xe
Pottinger: "I was able to call doctors on the ground in China in late January. And they were already telling me, look…Half of the cases or more are asymptomatic. That was a different story from what the Chinese government was telling." @margbrennan cbsn.ws/3kco6Xe
@margbrennan Pottinger: "If you weigh the circumstantial evidence, the ledger on the side of an explanation that says that this resulted from some kind of human error, it far outweighs…the side of the scale that says this was some natural outbreak." @margbrennancbsn.ws/3kco6Xe
And poof. Just like that, Clubhouse—and its rare outpouring of freewheeling debate on taboo topics in the Chinese-speaking world—appears to have been cut off in mainland China. A lovely requiem for the hit Silicon Valley audio-only chat app by @xinwenfan on.wsj.com/3q4E8nR
@xinwenfan On Monday evening, Clubhouse users from Beijing to Shenzhen said their chats—some of which touched on the plight of China’s Uighur Muslims or the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989—were disconnected mid-conversation, replaced by an error message. on.wsj.com/3q4E8nR
@xinwenfan Thousands then quickly swamped newly created Clubhouse chat rooms to confirm the blockage after climbing back in using VPNs to circumvent China’s internet firewall. After trading notes, they concluded Chinese censorship was the likely culprit. @xinwenfanon.wsj.com/3q4E8nR
How can you ensure that Xinjiang factories aren't using forced labor? You can't, an increasing number of Western supply-chain auditing firms are concluding—a move that could force Western businesses doing work there to exit the region. @evawxiao on.wsj.com/2ZZkBKO
@evawxiao Five organizations—from France, Germany, Italy and two from the U.S.—have said they won’t provide labor-audit or inspection services in Xinjiang. The withdrawal of auditing groups adds to the difficulty for brands working with Xinjiang-based suppliers. on.wsj.com/2ZZkBKO
@evawxiao Auditors face a range of challenges in Xinjiang. Auditors have reportedly been detained or threatened by Chinese authorities. Auditors may have to use government interpreters who convey misinformation when they are visiting factories employing Uighurs. on.wsj.com/2ZZkBKO
Mike Pompeo: "The single rule is this: We don’t want American data in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party…It will end up in the hands of their MSS, their security apparatus, their military, their civil-military fusion programs." state.gov/secretary-mich…
Pompeo: "The transaction around TikTok, I’ve seen the outlines of it…This deal…will ensure that no American’s data has any access to anyone in China that has any capacity to move this to a place we don’t want it. We will ensure…that firewall is real." bit.ly/2FLEqye
Pompeo: "Whether there is still some Chinese ownership or they still collect a royalty check from the benefits of the business, there will be an American headquarters…controlled by Americans. And the data…will be in a place that we have confidence." bit.ly/2FLEqye
Fraying ties between Beijing and the West have become the biggest worry for U.S. and European businesses in China, reports from a pair of business groups said this week. “This Beijing-Washington dialogue—they need to work this out." @Trefor1@AmChamShon.wsj.com/3ijoIZ9
@Trefor1@AmChamSh Worsening bilateral ties now overshadow the rise of Chinese competitors (58%), China’s slowing economy (49%) and increasing labor costs (38%) as the main source of anxiety for U.S. companies operating in China. @Trefor1on.wsj.com/3ijoIZ9
@Trefor1@AmChamSh The European Chamber is also concerned. “There now seems to be a growing list of sectors that either restrict foreign investment, or in which support is provided to China’s national champions to the extent that it squeezes out any potential…competition." on.wsj.com/3ijoIZ9