Following the outbreak of COVID-19 from Wuhan, China's authoritarian rule actively banned scientists and doctors from leaking potentially life-saving information about the coronavirus. This shows a shocking display of selfishness and incompetence, as China failed to lock down on the coronavirus during it's early stages allowing it to spread into a global pandemic. Furthermore, this is not the first epidemic that China has produced, regardless of whether you believe this is a manmade virus or natural, as the SARS outbreak in 2002 first arose in Guangdong. During this initial outbreak, China used the same tactics of preventing press coverage and delayed reporting to the World Health Organisation (WHO), allowing the virus to spread to Vietnam, Taiwan, Singapore and Canada. The outbreak ended after intervention from the WHO and good fortune. But it appears China did not learn its lesson. The outbreak of these coronaviruses have been linked to wildlife and wet markets which are still prominent in China. In my opinion, the Chinese government should be less concerned about their appearance on the international stage and more concerned with cracking down upon these markets in order to prevent these viruses from originating in the first place. It has similarly been suggested that the prevalence of bats in China are the cause of coronavirus mutations, I would also suggest an action plan to stop bat-related viruses from developing needs to be enacted. The death count from COVID-19 has reached the millions, yet I see very little holding China to task for the pandemic, in spite of it's history of viral outbreaks. Whether the virus developed from bats, wet markets, or laboratories is inconsequential, as the government has played an active role in allowing COVID to spread beyond its borders and across the world. It appears politics has been more important, as merely referring to the coronavirus as the 'Wuhan flu' or 'Chinese virus' will be deemed as racist, despite the fact that these terms act as a reminder of where and how COVID originated. The rise of racially motivated attacks upon people of Asian descent are terrible acts, but I believe they represent the frustration of people who do not see China facing consequences of their actions. China needs to be held accountable, or else it's only a matter of time before another deadly coronavirus epidemic is inflicted upon the world. The Chinese government has shown that it is unwilling to put the lives of its citizens and others before its public image. In this case, it is the responsibility of the rest of the world to do so, and make China face the consequences of its actions. How many more millions have to die before this happens?

While China is not responsible for the appearance of the SARS-CoV-2 strain, they should be held accountable for not letting the international community know about it as early as November 2019. Had the global community been informed about it, China would have given everyone a headstart in the fight against SARS-CoV-2, and travel restrictions would have been put in place early on the epicenter of the pandemic (Wuhan, Hubei, China). The virus wouldn't have spread as it has.

**An investigation into China's response to the coronavirus is absolutely necessary, but not as a way to scapegoat them for the poor response of the rest of the world** The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly left the world in a dire position. With [almost 4.5 million deaths and counting](https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/), and a [devastating impact on the world economy](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51706225#:~:text=Many%20people%20have%20lost%20their,a%20decade%20of%20jobs%20expansion.), it is easy to want to blame China's mismanagement of the crisis. But the situation is far too nuanced for people to begin assigning blame to one nation for what has become a global problem: - Holding China 'accountable' could be at the expense of Chinese medical professionals and citizens, rather than government officials - Many of the worst affected countries have suffered due to a poor response from their own governments, compared to China who have done a considerably [better job of containing the disease long term](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/23/china-reports-zero-symptomatic-covid-cases) - Starting a blame game [stops effective cooperation to actually end the pandemic](https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/08/19/lets-end-the-covid-19-blame-game-reconsidering-chinas-role-in-the-pandemic/) - Casting blame can only contribute to further [disinformation about the crisis](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58273322) - Arguing that China should have restricted travel ignores the fact that this would have required global cooperation, and [considering the continued urge to travel despite rising COVID cases](https://etc-corporate.org/news/europeans-maintain-a-robust-desire-to-travel-planning-2021-trips-despite-covid-19-second-wave/), it is not certain that all nations and companies would have adhered to stricter guidance - However, Chinese officials egregiously [refused to give data to the World Health Organisation about how COVID originated](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-56054468), which in itself is arguably worse than not effectively containing the virus early on