German intelligence: China pressed WHO to stall on virus

FPI / May 11, 2020

Chinese supreme leader Xi Jinping made a personal plea to the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) to delay the release of critical information regarding the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, German intelligence reported.

Xi spoke with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Jan. 21 to press the WHO to withhold information about human-to-human transition of the virus and delay the WHO's declaration of a global pandemic, Germany's BND (Federal Intelligence Service) found, according to a report by Der Spiegel.

“The BND’s verdict is harsh: At least four, if not six, weeks have been lost in Beijing’s information policy in the fight against the virus,” Der Spiegel reported.

The WHO released a statement shortly after the publication of the BND's claims, calling them "unfounded and untrue."

Xi also met with the WHO director-general on Jan. 28 in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. At that time, Xi said the new coronavirus is a “devil” and that China was confident of winning the battle against it.

Xi added that he believed the WHO and the international community would give a “calm, objective and rational” assessment of the virus, Chinese propaganda outlets reported.

U.S. President Donald Trump has been highly critical of China’s handling of the pandemic, saying the communist nation should face punishments if it is found to have “knowingly” contributed to the spread of coronavirus.

Trump said last week that there was enough evidence to prove Xi's regime misled the global community.

"Well, I don't think there's any question about it. We wanted to go in, they didn't want us to go in. Things are coming out that are pretty compelling. I don't think there's any question," the president said.

"Personally, I think they made a horrible mistake, and they didn't want to admit it."

Trump's comments came as a Department of Homeland Security report revealed U.S. officials believe China "intentionally concealed the severity" of the pandemic in early January and hoarded medical supplies.

The DHS report accuses China of covering its tracks by "denying there were export restrictions and obfuscating and delaying provision of its trade data."

The DHS report lends weight to a leaked dossier drawn up by the Five Eyes intelligence alliance which describes how Beijing made whistleblowers "disappear", destroyed early virus samples and scrubbed the Internet of any mention of the disease in the early stages.

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

The Five Eyes dossier claims that the Chinese government silenced its most vocal critics and scrubbed any online skepticism about its handling of the health emergency from the Internet.

The developments from German intelligence caught the attention of U.S. politicians investigating China’s handling of the coronavirus.

“We are still working to confirm this reporting. But if it turns out to be true, it’s further proof Director-General Tedros conspired with the Chinese Communist Party in their cover up and is not fit to lead the WHO,” Texas Republican and Chairman of the House China Task Force Michael McCaul told the Daily Caller.

Four to six weeks of additional preparation time could have avoided the global pandemic entirely, according to a study published in early March by researchers at the University of Southampton. The study found that if China had acted and gone public with its information just three weeks sooner, it could have reduced spread of the disease by as much as 95 percent.

The U.S. intelligence community similarly concluded by mid-March that China had been falsifying its data on both coronavirus cases and deaths in its outbreaks in Wuhan and elsewhere.

Free Press International