The Chinese authorities were alerted to the threat the #coronavirus outbreak posed when human-to-human transmission was confirmed early December, just as they were about to sign a trade deal with the USA ending the damaging standoff between the two countries. Was the reason 1/4

that the government closed down any mention of the outbreak through December and January to protect this deal? Phase 1 of the deal was set to lift tariffs on about $200 billion of Chinese exports. However, if the deal hadn’t been agreed on December 15. 2/4

...then the US intended to impose wider sanctions on Chinese exports. As it happened, the deal was agreed on December 15 2019 and then signed exactly a month later on January 15. This was a critical period. Any indication in this time that China had a serious health crisis...3/4

...which may have pointed the finger at their biological labs and/or their appalling wet markets could have led to wider sanctions being applied. 4/4