Li Wenliang was a CCP member who didn't really have anything super noteworthy going for him until he got disciplined. That should be a signal that CCP membership and loyalty doesn't grant people shortcuts from China's political system hindering what they need to do

The CCP's rewards and punishment mechanisms are what played into China's initial detection and response speed to COVID-19. This system was what discouraged Wuhan's municipal officials from going public earlier and shutting New Year Activities

But this reality isn't rewarding to American political stakes, so it gets snarled into something that is aimed at America rather than the province-Beijing ties that comprise domestic Chinese political stakes. So we have theories of China lying as a part of a scheme

It's not rewarding as a campaign sound bite or policy note for DC to say "China lied because of its domestic political ladder and weird sense of domestic political security," or "disciplinary committees within organizations wanted to save face for local new year parties"

But framing this as "what good or ill does this cause to America," IMO, slows down how we understand the policy process within China and the analysis of helpful or flawed responses China prepared in the weeks where Covid19 peaked/plateaued