武肺病源論文 中國嚴格審查 自由 20200414

【縛雞之見】

Do not trust CCP’s swear, especially those they swear that they will never do.

Right after Chairman Xi's proclamation of verifying the origin of SARS-Cov-2, the Chinese government restrains related researches by attaching additional approvals, including those from Beijing's authorities.

It is cheap, in terms of governance: not to remedy all that CCP has screwed up and done things right, but to reshape the recognition of the public.

It is unfair and unjust -- China can retrieve all the data the whole scientific community contributes, while China does not permit foreign researchers to study anything on the Chinese soil.  Field researches in Wuhan are critically important to cure Wuhan pneumonia and to prevent a related pandemic.

CCP does not care about people's lives, which is the ultimate value we cherish but how to rule forever.

習近平說，要搞清楚，隨後就要「中央政府官員核准」，意思就是不會核准，說一套做一套。

事情搞砸了之後，他們只在意改變外界的認知。不必補救，多便宜的政治！

這也是極端不公平：中國可以取得學術界的資料庫進行研究，在武肺疫情上，中國擁有田野調查的最有利位置，但卻不允許各國引用中國的研究。自己也不研究。

北京此舉，便是妨礙世界對疫情的理解與調查，甚至妨礙防疫，殘害生命。

北京要付出長遠的代價—世界會不跟你玩了。

武肺病源論文 中國嚴格審查    自由 20200414

根據中國政府的命令與上海的復旦大學、武漢的中國地質大學（地大）曾發布的線上通告，北京當局對有關武漢肺炎病毒起源的學術研究，已採取嚴格限制，必須通過最高至國務院層級的三或四層審查。美國和英國媒體指出，此舉可能旨在擴大操控疫情的國際與國內輿論風向，指向疫情最早並非在中國爆發。

須通過最高至國務院層級的審查

英國《衛報》與美國有線電視新聞網（CNN）報導，按照中國政府的新政策，所有研究武肺的學術論文，在投稿發表前都必須通過額外審查，尤其對武肺病毒起源的研究，將接受詳細檢查，一定要取得中央政府官員核准。曾和中國研究人員在國際醫學期刊上共同發表武肺病例臨床分析的香港醫學專家指出，當局在二月時尚未規定這類審查。

按照新規定，有關武肺病毒起源的論文，第一關將由大學校內的「學術委員會」討論，檢查內容的正確性與是否適合發表。在通過校內審核後，校方應向中國教育部科學技術司（一說為中國科學技術部）呈報。接著再上呈給隸屬國務院的「工作組（跨部會協調工作平台）」進行最終審核。唯有獲工作組許可通知後，論文才能投稿給學術期刊。

其他武肺相關論文，則由各大學的學術委員會進行審查，標準是研究的「學術價值」和「發表時機」是否妥當。這些命令係根據一個由三十二個政府部門組成的「國務院聯防聯控機制」工作組，在三月二十五日一場會議中所做的指示。

據報導，相關公文十日（一說為九日）首次張貼在復旦官網上。CNN記者撥通該校聯絡電話後，中國教育部科學技術司承辦人強調，內部文件不應公開。幾小時後，復旦即移除該網頁。

China clamping down on coronavirus research, deleted pages suggest    The Guardian 20200414

Move is likely to be part of attempt to control the narrative surrounding the pandemic

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China is cracking down on publication of academic research about the origins of the novel coronavirus, in what is likely to be part of a wider attempt to control the narrative surrounding the pandemic, documents published online by Chinese universities appear to show.

Two websites for leading Chinese universities appear to have recently published and then removed pages that reference a new policy requiring academic papers dealing with Covid-19 to undergo extra vetting before they are submitted for publication.

Research on the origins of the virus is particularly sensitive and subject to checks by government officials, the notices posted on the websites of Fudan University and the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) said.  Both the deleted pages were accessed from online caches.

Prof Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London, said the Chinese government had 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.  “It doesn’t mean the economy and public health aren’t important.  But the narrative is paramount.”

With the virus having infected more than a million people worldwide and caused heavy casualties particularly across Europe and the US, details about its origin and the first weeks of the pandemic – when there was a cover-up by local officials – may be considered particularly sensitive.

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

China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) appears to have 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.

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.

“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 [also] been checked by MOST,” it said.

Despite its name, the geosciences university announced elsewhere on its website that it was carrying out coronavirus research.

A separate document obtained by the Guardian, which could not be independently verified, appears to be from the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University and also said publication of research into the origins of Covid-19 would need approval from the science and technology ministry.

Another notice, which appears to have been published on 9 April by the school of information science and technology at Fudan University in Shanghai, called for “strict and serious” management of papers investigating the source of the outbreak.

Papers could only be submitted for publication after being approved by a special office.  Email, names and phone numbers provided on the notice suggested that office was part of China’s ministry of education.

A source who alerted the Guardian to cached versions of the websites, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they were concerned by what appeared to be an attempt by Chinese authorities to intervene in the independence of the scientific process.

The person said researchers submitting academic papers on other medical topics did not have to vet their work with government ministries before seeking publication.

A technical analysis of the cached websites indicated that the posts were published on verified university websites before they were removed.  The Guardian could not independently verify that they reflected a new government policy.

The notices appear to be part of a broader push to manage research on the virus.  The science and technology ministry said on 3 April that ongoing clinical research on the coronavirus must be reported to authorities within three days or be halted.

In March China’s president, Xi Jinping, published an essay that included “tracing the origin of the virus” on a list of national priorities.  It was referenced by the science and technology ministry shortly before the universities posted their orders.

The Chinese government did not reply to a request for comment sent by the Guardian to the Chinese embassy in Washington.

While the exact origin of the pandemic is still not certain, one commonly held hypothesis is that it began following an interaction between a human and an animal at the Huanan seafood “wet market” in Wuhan.

Scientists have said the virus probably originated in bats and then passed through an intermediary animal before infecting the first human.

Scientists believe the transmission was similar to that in the 2002 outbreak of Sars.  Some criticism of China has focused on why the government did not shut down wet markets after the previous outbreaks of coronaviruses.

Kevin Carrico, a senior research fellow of Chinese studies at Monash University, said he was not aware of any specific recent change to rules for academic research in China in connection to Covid-19, but the documents were generally consistent with efforts by China to control the narrative of the pandemic.

“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,” Carrico said.

Carrico said those efforts had been evident in communications ranging from government pronouncements at the highest level to public sentiment on social media.

“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,” he said.

Around a month ago senior Chinese diplomats, officials and state media all publicly encouraged speculation that the new coronavirus could have come from outside the country.  The foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian suggested without evidence that the US military might have brought the virus to Wuhan.