China as Culprit

For John, BLUF:  Five Eyes is a term for the Intelligence cooperation amongst the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Bombshell 'Five Eyes' Western intelligence dossier claims China lied about human-to-human transmission, 'disappeared' whistle-blowers and refused to help other countries prepare a vaccine for coronavirus

Here are the sub-headlines:

• A leaked 15-page dossier from the 'Five Eyes' intelligence alliance says China's secrecy over the pandemic is an 'assault on international transparency'
• The US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand intelligence agencies have exposed a series of cover-ups It claims Five Eyes found a 'deadly denial of human-to-human transmission'
• Researchers who tried to raise the alarm have been silenced or disappeared and evidence of the outbreak was destroyed, it adds
• Report shows China refused to hand over virus samples to develop vaccines and censored its internet
• China also allegedly censored virus news on search engines from December
• The leaked files show the nations have evidence the virus was leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology
• Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19

From The Daily Mail, by Reporters Rachel Sharp, Jack Elsom and James Tapsfield, 2 May 2020.

Here is the lede plus five:

China lied about the human-to-human transmission of coronavirus, made whistle-blowers disappear and refused to help nations develop a vaccine, a leaked intelligence dossier reveals.

The 15-page document drawn up by the Five Eyes security alliance brands Beijing's secrecy over the pandemic an 'assault on international transparency' and points to cover-up tactics deployed by the regime.

It claims that the Chinese government silenced its most vocal critics and scrubbed any online scepticism about its handling of the health emergency from the internet.

China has roundly come under fire for suppressing the scale of its early outbreak which did not afford other nations time to react before the disease hit their shores.

Five Eyes - the pooling of intelligence by the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - laid bare its scathing assessment of the Xi Jinping administration in a memo obtained by the Australian Saturday Telegraph.

The smoking gun file claims to have found evidence the virus spawned in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, close to the wet market China says it came from, and unearths 'risky' research on bat-related diseases stretching back years.

Yes, this is sensationalism.  It is The Daily Mail, after all.  However, it is reporting on the kind of thinking one finds in authoritarian regimes.  Maintain the narrative, come what may and keep doubling down.  Truth, or freedom of information or thought, is not a consideration.

This kind of thing can lead to miscalculation and that can lead to conflict, especially when the lying party is also engaged in other international activities, like naval confrontations in the South China Sea.  And here.  And here.

Hat tip to my Wife.

Regards  —  Cliff