I've kept a 5-year silence about 🇬🇧 scientific establishment and COVID-19 origins.
I now find the conclusion unavoidable that, with @WHO and others, there was a concerted effort to suppress the lab-leak theory to deflect attention from Beijing.
1. Sir Jeremy Farrar, key figure in the scientific community's response to C-19, was worried about China being blamed for the virus. Discussions about the geopolitical implications of C-19 origins were ongoing between scientists at the time.
In his own words:
2. Sir Jeremy was initially 50:50 on the lab explanation. But was worried about this feeding into "anti-China rhetoric"
As the Chancellor @RachelReevesMP touches down in Beijing, two lines are being used:
1️⃣ We need the money
2️⃣ We need China to defeat climate change
I can’t believe how little scrutiny these lines have received.
So, first: is China going to rescue the UK economy? 🧵
Let’s look at the evidence. The UK consistently runs a trade deficit with China (around 30-40 bn). We run a very slight (much smaller) surplus in services. @GovUK figures:

Whereas some other countries did derive major economic benefit from China’s rise, Britain didn’t, not even in the so-called “Golden Era” of 🇨🇳🇬🇧 relations. Despite all the concessions, the pot of gold never materialised. Old but good primer here: carnegieendowment.org/china-financia…
Musk is on a collision course with the 🇺🇸 Legislative Branch, and much of the incoming Trump admin over China.
Musk on Taiwan:
“…like Haiwaii, an integral part of China which is arbitrarily not a part of China”
The Hill just reported allegations from Democrats that Musk killed a bipartisan effort to screen US investments into China. thehill.com/business/50517…
Why might Musk say/ do stuff like this?
Could it be to do with his Tesla Shanghai gigafactory, upon which his car business depends, loaned to him by the PRC state, which allows a CCP controlled committee to shut it down, arbitrarily?
This is an extremely serious case - a major escalation in Beijing’s overseas influence operations. There are obviously questions to answer, and a full public inquiry should follow, together with major improvement in security offered to MPs who have bravely confronted Beijing.
Worth noting: this is a man who consistently briefed against @ipacglobal and its members, and who I believe subverted free parliamentary debate by downplaying the behaviour of the CCP. He worked to divide the movement - a typical CCP tactic - and he had success.
Problem with the Integrated Review section on 🇨🇳 isn’t the language (which has much to recommend it).
There’s some nice sounding stuff in there eg:
The problem is that there isn’t much we can elevate to what Robert Kennedy called the “dignity of policy”.
Let’s dig a bit.
The IR talks about ‘creation of dependencies’ (an explicit aim of the CCP). In 2020 @dominicraab commissioned Project Defend to address dependency. It was quietly dropped in 2022. Nobody knows why. The IR doesn’t reinstate it, doesn’t even hint towards it. export.org.uk/news/509100/Pr…