And China itself does not know - once they know they will state it publicly - no matter in which direction the issue proves to be.
So far the CPC has cleary stated that is due to the animal-human chain - supported in majority and rejected in minority by the worlds scientists.
Logically the CPC will never allow for an "outsider" to be the first, to publish an undeniable truth in case of a Lab-leak.
There have been dozens of such leaks in the USA, Europe, all over the world. Nothing is foolproof.
That is indeed the big question - as towards the big public known outbreak. The Wuhan fish-market and it's immediate surrounding residents were identified as the primary/initial spreading place (5km away from the lab).
Other reliable and questionable scientific sources have stated that this virus had caused fatalities in e.g. Italy and e.g. the USA in the range of March to September 2019.
So the "speculation" goes on.
I doubt that very much.
Firstly you need to look at how China gets its legitimacy. Because all governments need legitimacy. In countries with elections, the election provides that legitimacy, unless someone shouts out loud enough that the elections weren't legitimate.
China doesn't have elections. It has a party that's been in charge for nearly 75 years, and it does whatever it likes. However people do protest and they fear that they could lose their legitimacy.
With the Covid 19 outbreak the leaders in Wuhan were too scared to tell Beijing what was happening. Why? Because there always has to be a fall guy. It CANNOT be the guy at the top of the pyramid. It has to be someone else. And these guys knew this. So they tried to hide it and make it go away.
What were they hiding?
They could have been hiding:
1) The lab that does coronavirus research had a leak.
Feasible because it's happened in Gansu and not many people died, so they could be honest about it, most people wouldn't have known or cared about this one, it doesn't impact legitimacy.
2) The wet market took in animals that had the coronavirus infection and it jumped to humans and stayed jumped.
Feasible, Chinese sanitary conditions are poor at best, such wet markets are even worse. People spitting all over the place, coughing out into the air, all kinds of animals kept in tubs and all manner of "whatever works, we'll use" kind of attitude. Money rules, sanitary conditions... what the fuck are those?
3) The US somehow went to China and released a coronavirus.
Totally unfeasible. If the US were going to do this, the potential for reaching the US was HIGH, so the US must have had a back up plan (read 'vaccine') beforehand. It didn't. Also why attack China with something that wouldn't be considered that deadly, if you wanted to destroy an enemy country, there would be far better things to do.
So, we have two feasible outcomes. One of which is about wet markets. The local government wouldn't have known anything, so why try and hide it? The other they might have known, and they'd know that theory is far more toxic for the legitimacy of the government, and legitimacy of their own jobs.
Then we can look at what China is saying NOW. If it were just a wet market case, China would have poured in people from all over to say that it was just a mistake, we've closed the wet markets down, we've done what needed to be done, we're sorry. Maybe. Perhaps saving face would come into this. Perhaps they'd see the wet market as people looking at China and saying they're unsanitary and it was all China's fault.
With a leak, that's a big thing. Because there's no way to hide that, except by refusing anyone to come in and take a look.
And speculation will go on, because China isn't telling us what it knows. And it's not doing so because it knows.....
On my Facebook feed I got from Xinhua (read, Chinese govt mouthpiece)
"If you need political ammunition, don't take ridiculous stuff like the China Lab Leak Theory, which has been long dead and buried (by WHO, by the way).
It only shows how desperate you are."
This is what the wrote with it.
They're saying that the theory it leaked from a lab is "ridiculous". It's not "ridiculous", it might be "ridiculous" if we had any of the information, but we don't. It's feasible, and as long as they hide it, it will be there to attack China with.
It hasn't been "long dead and buried", this is just the sort of language the Chinese like to use. They will lie, they will cheat, as long as their own legitimacy is open.
The WHO has said a lot of things, but has NOT buried this theory at all, how could they, China won't let them.
Desperate? Who is desperate? Well, it seems like those who are posting such cartoons and using such language, typical "we know the truth, but we're going to manipulate the people" sort of language China uses ALL THE TIME. Even when you KNOW what they're saying is a crock of shit.
Like when Xi said, back in the autumn, that only the CCP could have had the success China has achieved up to that point. Bullshit, Macao, Hong Kong AND Taiwan were all MORE SUCCESSFUL than the CCP at pushing the country forwards economically and socially.
