Deleted online pages suggest China clamping down on coronavirus research

Notices posted on the websites of Fudan University and the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) said research on the origins of coronavirus is particularly sensitive and subject to checks by government officials. The Guardian accessed both the deleted pages through online cache.

Director of the SOAS China Institute in London Prof Steve Tsang said the Chinese government has had a heavy focus on how the evolution and management of the virus is perceived since the early days of the outbreak.

“In terms of priority, controlling the narrative is more important than the public health or the economic fallout,” he said, adding, “It doesn’t mean the economy and public health aren’t important. But the narrative is paramount.”

Details about the origin of coronavirus and the first week of the pandemic may be considered particularly sensitive since more than a million people worldwide have been infected and over 1,00,000 have been killed.

China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) published and then deleted new requirements that academic papers dealing with the origins of the virus be approved by China’s ministry of science and technology before publication.

Referring to the reports of the new regulations, Tsang said, “If these documents are authentic it would suggest the government really wants to control the narrative about the origins of COVID-19 very tightly.”

The University’s academic committee was expected to first go through the research “with an emphasis on checking the accuracy of the thesis, as well as whether it is suitable for publication,” the regulation said.

It said, “When the checks have been completed, the school should report to the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and it should only be published after it has been checked by MOST.”

The geoscience university said on its website that it was carrying out coronavirus research despite its name.

Publication of research into the origins of COVID-19 would need approval from the science and technology ministry, a document reportedly from the Renmin Hospital in Wuhan which could not be verified said.

Another notice published in April by the school of information science and technology at Shanghai’s Fudan University, called for “strict and serious” management of papers investigating the source of the outbreak.

Papers could be only submitted for publication after being approved by a special office. Contact details provided on the notice suggested that office was part of China’s ministry of education.

Notices like these are a part of an effort to manage research about the virus. ON April 3, the science and technology university said ongoing clinical research on the virus must be reported to authorities within 3 days or be halted.

President Xi Jinping, had, in March, published an essay including “tracing the origin of the virus” on a list of national priorities. The essay was referenced by the ministry before the universities posted their orders.

The virus is believed to been originated at a seafood market in China’s Huanan province. Scientists say that the virus probably originated in bats an then passed on through an intermediary host before infecting the first human.

A senior research fellow of Chinese studies at Monash University Kevin Carrico said he wasn’t aware of any recent change to rules for academic research in China but the documents were consistent with efforts to control the pandemic’s narrative. “They are seeking to transform it from a massive disaster to one where the government did everything right and gave the rest of the world time to prepare,” he said.

“There is a desire to a degree to deny realities that are staring at us in the face … that this is a massive pandemic that originated in a place that the Chinese government really should have cleaned up after Sars,” Carrico added.

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