Seeking accountability. Noted Chinese scholar Hu Ping unpacks a buried catastrophe.

The Chinese government remains in denial about the Wuhan lockdown, with no mentions or evaluations of it in recent documents, including a 2025 white paper that focuses on countering external criticism rather than providing new insights or accountability for the historic disaster.

By Hu Ping, published by China Unofficial Archives

Summary by Probe International

Six years ago today: On January 23, 2020, the Wuhan municipal government announced a lockdown to control the spread of COVID-19, effective immediately, just 23 days after the virus was first reported. The acclaimed writer and author of Wuhan Diary, Fang Fang, noted on Feb. 27 that this delay had already caused the virus to spread, raising questions about the reasons behind it. By March 19, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the pandemic had become global, reaching more than 150 countries, far exceeding cases reported in China. The scale of the outbreak would send shockwaves through global economics and politics, with the excesses of lockdowns felt to this day.

The origins of the virus still remain unclear, with ongoing speculation about whether it resulted from a natural spillover or a laboratory leak. In the early stages of the pandemic, the Chinese government disseminated false information and inaccurate data, misleading the WHO and foreign governments, which prevented timely warnings about human-to-human transmission. This propaganda persisted even as experts, including The Lancet’s editor, advised against panic, while the WHO recommended against travel restrictions. Consequently, the world was misled by a mix of flawed data and state propaganda.

Hu Ping argues that while many countries mishandled the COVID-19 outbreak, China’s situation is particularly unique as the virus originated there, making it the government’s moral obligation to clarify its origins. Despite the difficulty, he writes, it is essential for Chinese civil society to advocate for accountability and a reckoning regarding decisions that led to “untold misery and a high death toll.”

Hu Ping is a New York-based Chinese scholar and editor of the pro-democracy, Chinese language periodical Beijing Spring.

Go to the publisher’s website here to read this essay in full (scroll down for the English-language version).