Local officials in Wuhan, China, withheld information on the threat of the coronavirus from Beijing, US intel reportedly reveals

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• US intel found that local officials failed to report the coronavirus threat to Beijing for weeks, hindering attempts at stemming the spread of the virus, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
• According to an internal report relayed by US officials to The Times, local officials in Wuhan, China — where the coronavirus originated — hid information on the coronavirus from central government leaders, likely out of fear of retribution from the country's Communist government.
• The Trump administration has previously accused China's central government of covering up the virus, but the US intel, which was circulated in June, shows the complexity behind the situation as the outbreak unfolded.
• "It makes a huge difference if it was Wuhan or Beijing," Michael Pillsbury, director for Chinese strategy at Hudson Institute and outside adviser to President Donald Trump, told The Times.
• The internal report was commissioned as a follow-up to a report from the Department of Homeland Security that said Chinese officials hid the coronavirus to hoard medical supplies, the Associated Press reported in May.
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Intelligence collected by US agencies found that local officials in China hid the threat of the coronavirus from government leaders for weeks, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

The internal report, according to US officials who spoke to The Times, revealed that local officials in Wuhan, China — where the coronavirus originated — withheld information on the coronavirus from Beijing officials, possibly out of fear of retribution.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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