A whistleblower who defected from the Chinese Communist Party claims China intentionally spread the virus that causes COVID-19 months before it informed the world of its existence.
Wei Jingsheng said Chinese public health officials first discovered the coronavirus after an outbreak at the World Military Games in October 2019, hosted in Wuhan. An estimated 9,000 attendees — including Americans — developed a mysterious illness that Jingsheng now suspects was COVID-19.
“I thought the Chinese government would take this opportunity to spread the virus during the Military Games, as many foreigners would show up there,” Jingsheng said in a new Sky News Documentary “What Really Happened in Wuhan,” according to the Daily Mail.
Jingsheng told interviewers he overheard conversations about an “unusual exercise” planned by the Chinese government during the tournament.
“[I heard] of the possibility of the Chinese government [was] using some strange weapons, including biological weapons, because I knew they were doing experiments of that sort,” he continued.
The former principal China advisor for the U.S., Miles Yu at the State Department, confirmed Americans and other athletes who attended the World Military Games developed COVID-like symptoms. Officials never tested or diagnosed them with the illness, however.
The Chinese whistleblower said he was so concerned, he attempted to contact the Trump administration with details of the impending calamity but claimed senior officials disregarded him. Jingsheng accused the Chinese government of censoring references to a “new SARS virus” on the Internet after they began circulating. He also said healthcare workers who tried to alert the world were detained and arrested.
“They may not believe that a government of a country would do something like that (cover up a virus), so I kept repeating myself in an effort … to persuade them,” he said in the film.
China exiled Jingsheng years ago. He claimed to have obtained the intimate details through sources he maintains within Beijing’s Communist Party, who he said shared his fears about the central government’s coverup.
U.S. intelligence officials have said the coronavirus likely began spreading in America in December, months before the federal government declared a national emergency.
The World Health Organization said China first notified it of the mysterious pneumonia-like disease that infected 44 people on December 31, 2019. The organization told the international community of the outbreak on January 30, 2020.
Many have questioned whether the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a Chinese coronavirus lab, is responsible for the outbreak. Lab leadership has denied the possibility, as has the Chinese government. U.S. lawmakers have called for further investigation, claiming China rushed the investigation.
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