China and Covid19
Foxconn Protests 2.0: Riots at Zhengzhou’s Foxconn Factory as New Workers Enter and Old Problems Remain
Fed up with Foxconn, employees vented their frustrations and started a riot at the Zhengzhou factory campus.
Published
4 months agoon
Following an exodus of employees, Zhengzhou’s Foxconn factory has been recruiting thousands of new employees to come and work for them. But despite new workers, old problems remain, and the “Foxconn Workers Movement 2.0” (富士康2.0工人运动) has begun.
There is trouble in Foxconn, again. Dealing with a Covid outbreak, anti-epidemic guidelines, a loss of employees, and the pressure to deliver at a time of peak production demand, the anger, panic, and frustrations have been mounting inside the Foxconn premises.
In late October, Foxconn (富士康), the world’s largest technology manufacturer and Apple supplier, already made headlines after its factory in Zhengzhou, Henan, was hit by a Covid outbreak that was grossly mismanaged. The Foxconn complex in Zhengzhou, where half of the world’s iPhones are made, employs approximately 300,000 people. Factory workers live at the Foxconn dormitories and usually eat inside the campus, but as living conditions worsened amid the wave of Covid cases, employees started fleeing the Foxconn ‘factory city,’ starting their long journey home on foot, walking on highways and fields across the Central Plains while carrying their blankets, bags, and other personal belongings.
Foxconn employees leaving the bad situation at the factory campus and going home by foot in late October of 2022.
After the big walk-out, the company dealt with a staff shortage so local government staff teams were called in, allegedly to get into the factory and help with the recruitment of new employees. But as they faced challenges in meeting their targets and attracting enough new workers and did not meet their targets, frustrations at the factory site were allegedly building up due to the increased pressure on the employees who had to continue working while Covid cases were still popping up.
Videos circulating on social media show riots and unrest at Zhengzhou Foxconn, where workers are fed up working during a mismanaged Covid outbreak and feel cheated by the company. As the topic is restricted on Weibo, some wonder if they were shooting a movie there.. pic.twitter.com/CCPI3y2ICR
— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) November 23, 2022
As rumors grew strong on Chinese social media about something happening at Foxconn in Zhengzhou in the early morning of 23 November, the majority of posts related to the issue are: “What happened?” and “Can anybody send me a private message on what happened?” “Is it true that they are filming a movie at Foxconn or is something else going on?” Due to censorship, many people did not understand the exact circumstances surrounding some of the videos that circulated online.
Censorship and self-censorship makes it hard to find out exactly what's going on. When one commenter asked what is happening here, the other replied: "They're watching the World Cup, cheering on the Japanese team" ("看世界杯,给小日本加油呢.") pic.twitter.com/p15XaI9aVC
— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) November 23, 2022
Meanwhile, posts circulating on WeChat and Douyin suggested that riots had erupted at Foxconn. Photos and videos making their rounds showed explosive and violent scenes involving police riot teams and people in full hazmat suits. The unrest continued during the day on Wednesday.
One post published by an anonymous Henan-based Douyin user explained:
“Let me tell you what happened at Foxconn today. Foxconn has recruited people from all over the country to come work in Zhengzhou Foxconn under generous conditions. Now in total more than 100,000 people have been recruited to come work at Zhengzhou Foxconn. They came over and were quarantined in the cities near Zhengzhou to isolate and quarantine for four days while getting paid.”
“But the problem now is that the first batch of people who have isolated have arrived at the Foxconn campus as new workers. Foxconn originally promised that new workers and original workers would live separately, but in reality they all live in the dorm buildings; and the old employees haven’t done nucleic acid testing for 7-8 days, which means that there are positive Covid cases living and working together with new employees. This caused panic among the new workers, who feel cheated. That was the first deception.”
“The second deception is that tonight everybody received a new contract from Foxconn, regardless if they were new employees who had already entered the Foxconn campus or employees who were still in quarantine, and the contract was totally different from the one issued by Foxconn at the time of recruitment.”
“Everyone felt that Foxconn has deceived from the start and tricked them, which led to the outburst of riots today. Up to now, the Zhengzhou government has not given any response and we do not know how this will develop.”
It is suggested in other videos that the problems at Foxconn had been building up for much longer now and that there have been smaller altercations and incidents in the days leading up to the outburst of protests on Wednesday.
Some news sources confirm that Foxconn workers stated to reporters that the company introduced new factory subsidy policies that were not in line with what they were promised at the time of recruitment.
Because this is the second big wave of unrest at Foxconn Zhengzhou this fall, allegedly mainly led by the new workers, the protest is also referred to as the “Foxconn Workers Movement 2.0” (富士康2.0工人运动) by some on social media.
“We are not asking for anything, just regular nucleic acid testing and food delivery would do,” one female said in a video that circulated on Kuaishou, another popular Chinese social video app.
“Foxconn is trash, they’re garbage, they’ve used military force to suppress the workers, many staff members got injured, and the Zhengzhou government is colluding with them in bullying ordinary workers,” one Weibo commenter wrote.
Two men look defeated at the Foxconn site, the hazmat suits in the back lined up like a brick wall.
“I feel so sorry for the workers.”
There are also those on Weibo who are drawing comparisons between protests at Foxconn and the Hong Kong riots: “I find it odd that once riots broke out in Hong Kong, everyone unanimously sided with the police and cheered on as they beat the ‘cockroaches,’ and now that riots are breaking out in Foxconn, people don’t even take the time to know the cause and effects before already blaming the police and the government.”
“We should support mainland China police in the same way we supported the Hong Kong police force,” others wrote.
Meanwhile, a clear majority of the people speak out in support of the Foxconn workers. They post old propaganda posters that emphasize how the Chinese working class will lead the revolution, and recommend other Weibo users to read Karl Marx. “Is the working class still leading?” they ask.
Noteworthy enough, one somewhat popular post on Weibo pointed out that the online censorship of the Foxconn protests had not been that bad as many videos and images surrounding the event were still circulating online. “That’s rare these days,” they wrote. Ironically, the image they posted with their text was censored.
It is now frequently pointed out that Zhengzhou is ruining its reputation. Although the entire country cheered for the city at the time of the floods in 2021, local authorities have been increasingly criticized since the duped depositors came to protest in the city and saw their health codes turn red. People also condemn Zhengzhou’s handling of the epidemic. Earlier this week, a local community went viral for warning outsiders that they would ‘be killed on the spot’ if they would enter; last week, a local initiative to launch extra expensive, extra fast ‘VIP services’ for nucleic acid testing was also met with disapproval.
“I feel so distressed about this,” one Weibo commenter replied to the Foxconn situation: “It’s time to wake up!”
“What’s the first sentence of the national anthem?” one blogger wrote: “Stand up, those who refuse to be slaves!”
For more articles on the Covid situation in China, check here. If you appreciate what we do, please support us by subscribing for just a small annual fee.
By Manya Koetse , with contributions by Miranda Barnes
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©2022 Whatsonweibo. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce our content without permission – you can contact us at info@whatsonweibo.com.
Manya Koetse is the founder and editor-in-chief of whatsonweibo.com. She is a writer, public speaker, and researcher (Sinologist, MPhil) on social trends, digital developments, and new media in an ever-changing China, with a focus on Chinese society, pop culture, and gender issues. She shares her love for hotpot on hotpotambassador.com. Contact at manya@whatsonweibo.com, or follow on Twitter.
Also Read
China and Covid19
Chinese Tourism Bureau Chiefs Go Viral for Trying Really, Really Hard to Attract More Post-Covid Domestic Tourists
It’s a Culture & Tourism Bureau social media battle: China’s local tourist offices are fighting to go viral to attract more visitors.
Published
3 weeks agoon
March 9, 2023Hoping to attract more domestic tourists in the post-Covid-era, Chinese local government officials are trying really hard to promote their hometowns. Various tourism bureau chiefs from across China are going viral on Weibo, Douyin, and beyond for dressing up in traditional outfits and creating original videos with low to zero budget.
Another local Chinese tourism bureau chief went viral today – it’s an entire trend by itself. Tourist department offices under several local governments in China are trying really hard to promote their hometowns these days in hopes of attracting more domestic tourists in China’s post-Covid era.
Government officials are showing their best side – and their most creative one – on social media to convince tourists to visit their region. In doing so, these local bureau chiefs have been attracting online attention for appearing in promo videos in various creative ways (#为了让你去玩儿文旅局长们能有多拼#).
Since early 2020, China’s tourism industry has been heavily impacted by the pandemic and China’s strict Covid measures and lockdowns. At various moments during the pandemic, China’s domestic tourism saw an increase in holiday bookings as tourists still wanted to travel but could not easily travel abroad.
Now that China has lifted blockades on foreign travel, the post-zero-Covid itch to travel is back in full swing. As travel to other countries is seeing a boom again (while tourist visas to mainland China are still halted), local tourist offices are doing all they can with a minimal budget to encourage domestic travel to their lovely hometowns.
The trend of China’s tourist bureau chiefs finding innovative ways to promote their regions or towns via social media has been going on for some time already, but it wasn’t until recently that they really gained nationwide attention for their efforts.
The recent viral trend is not only generating more attention for the specific towns and regions promoted in the videos, it is also bringing more recognition for the drive of China’s Culture & Tourism Bureau chiefs – officials who usually rarely get the limelight. Many Chinese netizens agree that it must take a lot of talent and creativity to become a local tourism bureau chief nowadays.
1. TOURISM BUREAU DIRECTOR OF ZHAOSU COUNTY (XINJIANG)
Riding a horse through a windy snowy country, He Jiaolong (贺娇龙) was the first local official to feature in a social media video to promote the Yili region. The video of the vice-county head of Zhaosu, all dressed up, went viral in the winter of 2020.
Chief He later told reporters that she did not expect the video to go as viral as it did. According to Shine, He Jiaolong said: “I invited two horse lovers to help us promote local tourism on social media. We borrowed the costume from a local art troupe. They posted my horse-riding videos on Douyin and received enthusiastic responses.”
A ‘behind the scenes’ video later published on Douyin showed He falling over and battling the cold during the filming, only making the local official more popular for her dedication.
2. TOURISM BUREAU DIRECTOR OF SUIZHOU (HUBEI)
In October of 2022, Xie Wei (解伟), director of the Suizhou Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism in Hubei province, made headlines for his performance in videos produced and directed by himself.
As reported by South China Post, Xie made the videos himself because the local tourism bureau did not have the budget for a professional production. Although the videos made by Xie went viral, they also received some criticism because of how Xie was role-playing and dressing up as an ancient knight.
Nevertheless, Xie Wei did breathe new life into this creative approach to destination marketing, inspiring other Culture and Tourism Bureaus across China to take a similar social media strategy and join on the battleground to win over the hearts of domestic travelers.
3. TOURISM BUREAU DIRECTOR OF TIBETAN AUTONOMOUS PREFECTURE
In February of 2023, it was the bureau chief of the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Tourism Office, Liu Hong (@甘孜刘洪), who went viral with various videos featuring him in traditional clothing, which earned him the nickname of “most handsome bureau chief” (“最帅局长”).
It was not the first time for Liu to star in his own tourism promotion video, as there was another video in 2022 in which he also did some cosplay to promote the Garze region (Sichuan).
Liu Hong is now known as one of China’s “celebrity tourism bureau chiefs” (网红文旅局长). The videos actually helped to promote the region but also turned Liu into a celebrity.
4. TOURISM BUREAU DIRECTOR OF DAWU COUNTY (SICHUAN)
On February 10 of 2023, it was the Cultural Tourism Bureau chief Jiangze Duoji (@降泽多吉) of Dawu County who professionalized the social media video trend and featured in a super slick 3-minute video with beautfiul shots and a creative idea.
In the intro of the video, Jiangze Duoji speaks English when he talks about his life question of “Who am I?” The video then shows the local official dancing in an astronaut’s costume in Moshi Park, one of the area’s most beautiful scenic spots that will make you feel like you’re in outer space.
The local official is then dressed as a Tang emperor at the Daowu dwellings, moves on to be a an old painter in the Yuke grasslands and King Gasar while galloping over the Longdeng prairie.
The video did not just go viral, it was also promoted by several state media outlets, making it among the most famous videos in this list. It’s also on Youtube here.
5. TOURISM BUREAU DIRECTOR OF TAHE COUNTY (HEILONGJIANG)
On February 27, the Heilongjiang Tahe Culture and Tourism Bureau (Daxing’anling prefecture) released a video in which a team of 34 people simulated a rocket launch in the snow.
Du Bo (都波), director of the Tahe County Bureau of Culture and Tourism, told reporters that the decision to shoot the video like this was made during lunch, with the position plan drawn out on a napkin.
With this original video, the local tourist office literally took the social media battle to another level (#塔河县文旅局长卷出新高度#). But Du Bo also stated that other tourist offices in China should not hold back and be scared to join the social media battle, saying they were all in this together to recover China’s domestic tourism industry (“不要怕卷,这种卷是一件好事,大家凝聚在一起,共同期待文旅行业的复苏”).
The tourist office also released a second video that gained popularity online, featuring a ‘snow queen’ in beautiful snowy landscape.
6. TOURISM BUREAU DIRECTOR OF MEISHAN (SICHUAN)
This video, which premiered late February of 2023, is also professionally made, with the Meishan Tourism Office taking the video trend very seriously.
The bureau chief demonstrates the beauty of kung fu in this short film, which also received many thumbs up on social media (#文旅局长用功夫带你游眉山#).
7. TOURISM BUREAU DIRECTOR OF GAOPING (SHANXI)
On March 7, a video from the tourist office in Gaoping, a county-level city in Shanxi’s Jincheng, also went viral on Chinese social media as “yet another tourist office chief joining the war” (#又一文旅局长申请出战#).
The video shows the local tourist bureau chief “going to war” in traditional costume to promote Gaoping as the hometown of Emperor Yan (#文旅局长戏服代言炎帝故里#).
8: TOURISM BUREAU DIRECTOR OF HUANGGANG (HUBEI)
The video posted on social media ‘on behalf of’ the Tourism Bureau of Huanggang, Hubei, also attracted a lot of attention online since many people believed the cosplaying bureau chief had suddenly turned into a handsome young idol.
It later turned out that this video was actually not an official one and was posted on social media without the permission of the tourist office by enthusiastic locals.
9. TOURISM BUREAU DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF SUQIAN (JIANGSU)
The hashtag is “Jiangsu’s Culture and Tourist Office Bureau Chief Joins the Battle” (#江苏文旅局长卷起来了#). Liu Bing (刘冰), the deputy director of the Tourism and Culture Bureau in Suqian, Jiangsu, is another local official who is going viral these days for his appearance in a self-produced promo video on social media (#江苏一文旅局长变装项羽代言家乡#).
In the video, Liu Bing is dressed as Xiang Yu (项羽), Hegemon-King of Western Chu, to endorse Suqian tourism. Suqian is the hometown of Xiang Yu (232–202 BC), who is considered one of the greatest military leaders in ancient China.
Although Suqian is one of the later Tourism Bureau hypes to join the hype, the video – published on March 9 – is still welcomed by netizens and is actually putting some pressure on other Chinese cities and regions to come up with their own videos featuring their own historical local heroes.
10. TOURISM BUREAU STAFF OF FUJIAN
Fujian might be a bit late in “going to war” and joining the social media battle between the Chinese Tourism and Culture Bureau chiefs, its new video (March 9) obviously took a lot of effort, as it features different members of staff in various tourist spots in Fujian province.
The hashtag “Fujian Culture and Tourism Bureau Joins the Battle” (#福建的文旅局长卷起来了#) circulated on Thursday, attracting nearly five million views on Weibo in one day.
By Manya Koetse
with contributions by Miranda Barnes
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China and Covid19
Chinese Online Discussions on the Origins of Covid-19 after FBI Statement on Wuhan Lab Leak
After the FBI suggested it is likely that Covid-19 originated in a Wuhan lab, commentator Hu Xijin posted about “the United States of Rumors.”
Published
3 weeks agoon
March 4, 2023Is it a political issue or a scientific problem? The recent FBI statements on the origin of Covid-19 have brought the lab leak theory back on the table and, once again, triggered political blameshifting and online discussions about the roots of the pandemic.
Over three years since Covid-19 was first discovered in Wuhan and was linked to the local Huanan Seafood Market, the debate on the roots of the Covid-19 pandemic is still ongoing and has again made headlines this week as FBI director Christopher Wray endorsed a theory that the Covid pandemic was a result of a laboratory leak in China.
Wray’s remarks came after a Wall Street Journal report about an updated classified intelligence report from the United States Department of Energy. That report concluded that the pandemic probably – with “low-confidence” assessment – started with an unintentional lab leak in Wuhan.
China’s Foreign Ministry responded to the issue during a regular press conference earlier this week, blaming the Americans for using the problem regarding the origins of SARS‑CoV‑2 (the strain of coronavirus that causes Covid-19) for “political manipulation” (“政治操弄”). Spokesperson Mao Ning (毛宁) also said that the claims lacked credibility and were simply politicizing the issue instead of taking a scientific approach.
LAB LEAK THEORIES
“Although many lab leak conspiracy theories started in the U.S., some also began on the Chinese internet.”
Over the past years, discussions over the origins of SARS-CoV-2 have become increasingly politicized and both American and Chinese sides have pointed the finger at each other and shifted blame for the spread of the virus and the pandemic response on both sides.
Speculations, rumors, and theories that Covid-19 may have emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan were first raised in early 2020. Although many of these lab leak conspiracy theories started in the U.S., some also began on the Chinese internet.
In February of 2020, a rumor circulated on Chinese social media that a postgraduate named Yanling Huang from the high-security lab Wuhan Institute of Virology was the “Patient Zero” of Covid-19 (Wang et al 2021, 73). This was determined to be false, and other similar rumors making their rounds were also refuted and sidelined as a “conspiracy theory” by many scientists.1
A statement in The Lancet published in February of 2020 condemned any rumors on the virus origins, claiming that scientific research “overwhelmingly” concludes that the new coronavirus originated in wildlife.
The World Health Organization (WHO) research team investigating the origins of Covid-19, and which visited China in January of 2021, also called it “extremely unlikely” that the virus leaked from a lab in China. At the same time, all hypotheses on the origin of the virus remained on the table, and later on in 2021, the debate intensified after American President Biden called for a next phase study into the origins of the virus.
Dr. Fauci, director of the American National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had been among scientists who originally refuted the ‘lab leak’ theory, but in May of 2021, he changed his tune and said he was “no longer convinced” that the Covid-19 pandemic originated naturally.
The Chinese official side has consistently refuted claims that Covid-19 might have come from a Chinese laboratory leak, saying it is all about “political manipulation” and “blame shifting.”
China’s Foreign Ministry has turned the tables on the U.S. multiple times, demanding a thorough investigation into the source of the epidemic in the United States and a further probe into safety concerns at Fort Detrick and other American biological labs.
COVID-19 ORIGINS: HARDER TO TRACE
“The Covid-19 origin debate remains to be both a political and a scientific conundrum.”
Important keys to the SARS-CoV-2 origin question seem caught in a web of strategic narratives, political games, and colored perspectives.
Despite the recent U.S. Department of Energy report, there is still consensus among scientists – supported by a substantial body of research – that SARS-CoV-2 is of zoonotic origin, although the specific animal host has not been identified.
A study published in Science in July of 2022 concludes that SARS-Cov-2 most likely jumped from animals to humans at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market back in December 2019 (Worobey et al 2022).
Other recent studies that have come out on the research surrounding the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic argue that the complexity of the virus and the lack of harmonious international cooperation are making it harder to draw definite conclusions. Since the research requires international data from 2019 and is time-sensitive, the delays are also making it more tricky to identify the source of SARS-CoV-2 (see Hao et al 2022, 3189-3190).
The official Chinese stance (August 2021) is that the virus is of zoonotic origin and that China supports scientific research into the sources of the virus, as long as this does not become a political tool. The Chinese side also stresses that the fact that the virus was first discovered in Wuhan does not mean that the “Patient Zero” was also in Wuhan, as some studies indicate that there were positive Covid-19 cases before December 2019 in America, Brazil, and Italy (Hao et al 2022, 3185-3186).
In May of 2022, Chinese researchers published a blood-donors study analyzing samples supplied to the Wuhan Blood Center before December 2019, researching if there were SARS-Cov-2 antibodies in the blood provided between Sept-Dec of that year. That study reportedly did not find antibodies amid over 88,000 samples, showing the virus was not widespread in Wuhan in late 2019 (Chang et al 2023; Mallapaty 2023).
With so many questions left unanswered, a second phase study by the WHO into the origins of Covid-19 was much-anticipated. But it recently became known that the WHO shelved this investigation. According to Nature, the stalling of the research relates to ongoing challenges over attempts to conduct crucial studies in China.
And so the Covid-19 origin debate remains to be both a political and a scientific conundrum. Some scientists have voiced concerns that the FBI statement could lead to a renewed wave of harassment against scientists, with such statements only further clouding the debate instead of contributing to it (Euronews).
WEIBO DISCUSSIONS
“As long as politics and science cannot operate independently of each other, there is no conclusion in sight.”
Although the Chinese side supposedly condemns blame-shifting and finger-pointing in the Covid-19 origins issue, the media-led and official online discourse regarding the ‘origins problem’ is mostly accusing the U.S. of hyping the issue and making China the scapegoat. Various Weibo hashtags that are used in posts about the topic literally include the words “hyping” and “politicizing” (#美方应该停止搞政治溯源情报溯源#, #美方再次翻炒实验室泄漏论抹黑不了中国#, #有关方面应停止对新冠溯源政治化#, #FBI局长炒作新冠病毒实验室泄漏论#).
Well-known political commentator Sima Nan (@司马南) accused the American side of dredging up and repeating the same old issues again and that the U.S. is “increasingly becoming the world’s laughingstock” for spreading rumors via its official and media channels.
On March 3rd, another Chinese political commentator, Hu Xijin (@胡锡进) also published about the issue, again raising the issue of how Fort Detrick and a lab leak may be connected to the roots of the pandemic:
“In China, there are also many people who think that Covid-19 could come from a laboratory, but that it is America’s Fort Detrick lab. The WHO experts have already visited the Wuhan lab, but the expert group still has not visited the Fort Detrick lab despite the serious doubts about a Covid lab leak there. If the U.S. has nothing to hide, then it should do what China did in 2021 and open the doors of Fort Detrick to the WHO. The biggest lie in human history is that of former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell holding a bottle of washing powder at the United Nations and saying it was an Iraqi chemical weapon. That lie was used as pretext to launch a bloody war. The United States should change its name to “the United States of Rumors” (“谣言合众国”).”
One of the top replies on Hu’s post mentioned the American “vaping disease” that broke out in 2019 and peaked in September of that year. “It must have been the Yankees,” another commenter wrote.
The claim that Fort Detrick is related to the start of the pandemic or that the U.S. army brought Covid-19 to Wuhan has already been circulating since 2020, and these speculations were strengthened by Chinese official sources, including Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian, that pointed the finger at the U.S.
Many online discussions on Chinese social media, including those on Q&A platform Zhihu.com, still accuse the United States for covering up Covid-related facts and for putting the blame on China to cover their own tracks.
In light of the recent balloon controversy, some called the latest statements “another balloon.” By now, it seems impossible to separate the problem of Covid-19 origins from the bilateral relationships between China and the U.S. anymore.
In this regard, the online discussions surrounding the origins of Covid-19 have not changed a lot since 2020. It is a bit of a Catch-22, since these discussions are politicized as they are focused on how the U.S. is politicizing the issue. As long as (international) politics and science cannot operate independently of each other, there is no conclusion in sight that will bring the discussion on the exact origin of Covid-19 to a definitive end.
By Manya Koetse
1 Besides the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Wuhan-based Chinese Center for Disease Control has also been considered a possible source of a lab leak – the latter is also the one mentioned in the U.S. Department of Energy report.
References
Chang, Le, Lei Zhao, Yan Xiao, Tingting Xu, Lan Chen, Yan Cai, Xiaojing Dong et al. 2023. “Serosurvey for SARS-CoV-2 among blood donors in Wuhan, China from September to December 2019.” Protein & Cell 14 (1): 28-36.
Hao, Ying-Jian, and Yu-Lan Wang. 2022. “The origins of COVID-19 pandemic: A brief overview.” Transboundary and Emerging Diseases (69): 3181–3197.
Khatsenkova, Sophia. 2023. “China COVID lab leak: What we know and what we don’t know about the origins of the virus.” Euronews, # March https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/03/02/china-covid-lab-leak-what-we-know-and-what-we-dont-know-about-the-origins-of-the-virus [4 March 2023].
Mallapaty, Smriti. 2023. “WHO abandons plans for crucial second phase of COVID-origins investigation.” Nature, 14 February (Updated 3 March) https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00283-y#ref-CR1 [4 March 2023].
Wang, Xin, Fan Chao, Guang Yu. 2021. “Evaluating Rumor Debunking Effectiveness During the Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis: Utilizing User Stance in Comments on Sina Weibo.” Frontiers in Public Health (9): 70-87.
Worobey, Michael, Joshua Levy, Lorena Serrano, Alexander Crits-Christoph, Jonathan Pekar, Stephen Goldstein, Angela Rasmussen, Moritz Kraemer, Chris Newman, Marion Koopmans, Marc Suchard, Joel Wertheim, Philippe Lemey, David Robertson, Robert Garry, Edward Holmes, Andrew Rambaut, Kristian Andersen. 2022. “The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Science 377 (6609): 951-959.
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