Did Xi Jinping Deliberately Sicken the World?
thediplomat.com
thediplomat.com
The author uses the title as a setup to show that incompetence may explain a single instance, but across multiple scenarios one has to consider intentionality...
Also of note: High Factual reporting, center political leanings https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-diplomat-magazine/
This is probably peak China.
And samples didn't come till much much later.
Accusations like this are consipiracy-theory-level-of-evidence IMHO. A lot of circumstantial evidence but nothing damming.
Edit #1: As I alluded elsewhere, I am seriously worried about the fallout of these type of thinking to Chinese people living in US. The whole propaganda between the China and US are silently escalating, with both side being unnecessarily sensitive to the other's inappropriate publicity.
Edit #2: The idea of exhausting all possibility is equivalent to propaganda fighting. The end result is just escalating insanity...
Edit #3: In the article:
> The mayor of Wuhan even suggested that the central government prevented him from revealing details about the epidemic until January 20.
The link provided is "http://finance.eastmoney.com/a/202001271368110820.html", and it's in Chinese. The pointer to which the conclusion "the central government prevented him from revealing details" is derived is not provided.
I am a native Chinese speaker, and I cannot find any statement revealing that from a quick browsing...
> 这次我们的疫情其实各方面对我们信息的披露是不满意的，我们既有披露不及时的一面，也有我们利用很多有效信息来完善我们的工作不到位的一面。前面这个披露的不及时，这一点大家要理解，因为它是传染病，传染病有传染病防治法，它必须依法披露，作为地方政府，我获得这个信息以后，授权以后，我才能披露，所以这一点在当时很多不理解。
Google translated:
> In this epidemic, all parties are not satisfied with the disclosure of our information. We have not only disclosed the information in a timely manner, but also used a lot of effective information to improve our work. The previous disclosure is not timely, everyone should understand this because it is an infectious disease, and infectious diseases have infectious disease prevention and control laws. It must be disclosed in accordance with the law. As a local government, after I obtain this information, I can only disclose it after authorization, so This was not understood at the time.