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CHINA had ended and, in January 2021, a team of WHO investigators were refused entry to China. Instances such as these are a stark reminder of China's preponderance to favour its narrow ideological objectives over international co-operation, the implications of which will be felt for years to come.

It may be the case that China has been obstructive because it has something it wishes to hide. However, ***.

Accusations have also been levelled at China that its initial domestic response hindered later global containment efforts. However, there does not appear to be clear evidence that China deliberately released or allowed the release of the virus. What we have seen appears to echo reporting that suggested that, in the early days of the pandemic, the Chinese authorities appeared to emphasise information control at the expense of standard epidemic response measures. A reluctance to pass bad news up the chain hindered the response, as did widespread censorship of stories about the virus, and it appears that more decisive action only materialised when the issue reached higher levels of the Chinese government. The JIC Chair ***

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The response was characterised in evidence to us as part 'to be expected', and part 'typical Chinese aversion to bad news':

"I would characterise it in part as what would have been a challenge to any government dealing with a new virus, trying to work out what it was, trying to work out what measures should be taken and requiring a period of time as it flowed up through the system before it got to real decision-making level, but I would also say that they are handicapped by the Chinese system, because of a reluctance to share information, certainly a reluctance to allow information to become public and a reluctance to pass bad news up the chain."

China has faced considerable public scrutiny for its role in containing the pandemic, playing down the potential impacts of the disease—including, crucially, its potential for human-to-human transmission, about which they are alleged to have delayed releasing information to the public for up to six days in January 2020. China's reporting of infections and deaths has also been widely criticised for introducing uncertainty into modelling by