Opinion | China should welcome an international investigation to clear the air on its role in the coronavirus pandemic

Covid-19 is a global humanitarian crisis and Australia’s push for an international inquiry by the World Health Assembly should be welcomed. It would also be an opportunity to investigate the role of the WHO in the early stages of the outbreak

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China allowed a WHO group to conduct field research in a Wuhan hospital back in February. Photo: DPA

Published: 3:00am, 29 Apr 2020Updated: 3:42am, 29 Apr 2020

I receive a few messages from friends every day about Covid-19. Many of them raise a chuckle, light relief in these days of global lockdowns and profound anxiety. But then came a different kind of message from a friend in Hong Kong. It carried a few questions.

Why has the coronavirus that has spread across the globe, infecting some 3 million people and claiming over 200,000 lives, not done much damage in its birthplace, China? Also, while the pandemic drove stock markets around the world to nosedive, China’s market did not suffer as much.

Similarly, while more than 1 million people have been infected in the United States and more than 50,000 are dead, only around 83,000 have been infected in China and its death toll is less than one-tenth of the US’.

As I contemplated these questions, Reuters reported that Australia, which is on the executive board of the World Health Assembly, would push for an international investigation into the coronavirus pandemic at the assembly’s annual meeting next month. Such a study is something all should welcome.

It could put to rest all speculation and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus’ genesis – whether it stemmed from a wet market feeding the culinary culture of the Chinese population or from a laboratory developing a biological weapon for world domination.

However, China quickly denounced the Australian move as “political manipulation”, with Communist Party mouthpiece Xinhua later reporting that some investigations are under way or being planned. What the report did not say, however, was who is conducting, or going to conduct, them.

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