Editor’s note for Thursday, July 15, 2021

My thoughts today:

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on China to be “transparent” and “open” to a serious investigation of the origins of COVID-19 at a press conference today.

He complained that WHO still did not have access to “raw data” from the beginning of the pandemic, and even brought up the lab leak theory as a possibility that should not be dismissed: Having worked as an immunologist and lab technician, he said: “Lab accidents happen. It’s common. I have seen it happening.”

The lab leak theory makes a lot of people hot under the collar. Those who see it as a likely origin of the coronavirus condemn what they say is media downplaying of the idea, while another group of people — which includes some critics of the Chinese government — view the theory as sensationalism, or politicization of science.

But whatever your opinion about lab leaks or any other theory, we’ll never know the truth unless the Chinese government allows a truly independent investigation in China.

That is not going to happen.

When an explosion on a bus in northwestern Pakistan killed 13 people yesterday, including nine Chinese citizens, the Islamabad government initially called it an accident even though Beijing said it was a bombing. Today, Pakistan’s Minister for Information and Broadcasting tweeted: “Initial investigations into Dassu incident have now confirmed traces of explosives.”

Nóng Róng 农融, the Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan, visited survivors in the hospital, where he called for “an in-depth investigation into the incident,” and said that if it is “related to terrorism, the perpetrators must be brought to justice” (in English, Chinese).

Nong is going to have to get used to saying those words if he stays in Pakistan much longer: China’s become too much of a target in the country, and with the U.S military leaving neighboring Afghanistan, there is bound to be more trouble for Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road program in the region.

How long will China remain closed to most visitors because of COVID restrictions? A long time, says the Economist’s Chaguan columnist. Moreover: “Anecdote by anecdote, evidence is mounting that foreigners, whether suspected of bearing dangerous germs or ideas, are becoming less welcome.”

Also from the Economist: President Joe Biden’s China doctrine, which says that “the administration believes that America must blunt China’s ambitions, by building up its strength at home and working with allies abroad.” Although much of the U.S. president’s “new doctrine makes sense…the details contain a lot to be worried about — not least the fact that it is unlikely to work.”

Our word of the day is carbon emissions trading market (碳排放权交易市场 tàn páifàng quán jiāoyì shìchǎng).

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief