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WHO ditches plans for 2nd phase of COVID-origins investigation (impuissant style)

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C C Offline
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00283-y

INTRO: The World Health Organization (WHO) has quietly shelved the second phase of its much-anticipated scientific investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, citing ongoing challenges over attempts to conduct crucial studies in China, Nature has learned.

Researchers say they are disappointed that the investigation isn’t going ahead, because understanding how the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 first infected people is important for preventing future outbreaks. But without access to China, there is little that the WHO can do to advance the studies, says Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada. “Their hands are really tied.” (MORE - details)
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No surprise. WHO would just be another Sino-shill even if the doors weren't closed.






What influence does China have over the WHO?
https://www.dw.com/en/what-influence-doe...a-53161220

EXCERPTS: Some experts argue that the WHO may have been worried that challenging Beijing in any way could have worsened the crisis by putting China on the defensive. "This could have potentially led to China sharing less information with the international community or to Beijing barring WHO experts from going to China," Thomas des Garets Geddes, a research fellow at the Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) told DW.

"But this does not explain why the WHO lavished praise on China the way it did. Such excessive — and sometimes even misleading — praise was unnecessary and wrong," he added. 

[...] Despite its low share in the WHO's overall funding, experts say China's rising financial contributions increase its heft, particularly at a time when the US is seen to be giving up on international organizations and threatening to cut global health funding.

"China's potential of becoming a major WHO contributor must necessarily be an alluring prospect for the UN agency," said MERICS expert des Garets Geddes.

Observers also point out that cooperation between the WHO and China has been on the rise, be it along China's "Health Silk Road" initiative or in support of the WHO's goal of universal health coverage by 2030.

"These are projects that matter to Tedros and the WHO," said des Garets Geddes. He also stressed that China's growing economic and diplomatic clout allows Beijing to influence political decisions and build coalitions across the world. "This is especially true in the 'Global South' — an important region for the WHO. The World Health Organization needs to have China on its side."

Critics also point to Taiwan's continued exclusion from the WHO as evidence of Beijing's influence. Since China acceded to the UN in 1971, it has periodically blocked Taiwan from membership in international organizations like the WHO on the grounds that the democratically governed island is part of China.


How expat YouTubers depict China
https://www.dw.com/en/truth-or-lies-the-...a-59620156

According to Schafer, Russia is another country that has been mobilizing "useful idiots" for the West for its own propaganda purposes. But while it has been doing this for years, "obviously it is new for China, and you can see from the amount of coverage in Chinese state media of these online commentators that there is a clear effort by the Chinese government to promote them to audiences abroad."


How China Built a Twitter Propaganda Machine Then Let It Loose on Coronavirus
https://www.propublica.org/article/how-c...oronavirus


Beijing funds British YouTubers to further its propaganda war
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/beiji...-x5gqp5fg0

The Chinese government is funding British YouTube stars to produce pro-China propaganda videos.


China Uses YouTube Influencers to Spread Propaganda
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021...ncers.html

EXCERPTS: Sympathetic foreign voices are part of Beijing’s increasingly ambitious efforts to shape the world conversation about China. The Communist Party has marshaled diplomats and state news outlets to carry its narratives and drown out criticism, often with the help of armies of shadowy accounts that amplify their posts.

In effect, Beijing is using platforms like Twitter and YouTube, which the government blocks inside China to prevent the uncontrolled spread of information, as propaganda megaphones for the wider world.

“China is the new super-abuser that has arrived in global social media,” said Eric Liu, a former content moderator for Chinese social media. “The goal is not to win, but to cause chaos and suspicion until there is no real truth.”

[...] Other creators acknowledge that they have accepted financial support from state entities, though they say this does not make them mouthpieces for Beijing.

[...]  It is unclear how much income the creators may be generating from this work. But apart from money, Chinese government entities have also provided something that can be just as valuable for a social media personality: digital traffic.

YouTube uses advertising revenue to pay influencers based on how many people are watching. Those eyeballs can also help influencers land sponsorship deals with big brands, as several of the pro-China YouTubers have done.

[...]  YouTube also tries to promote transparency by labeling channels run by government-funded news organizations. But the platform does not label the personal channels of their employees, it said.

This allows some YouTubers to obscure the fact that they work for Chinese state media...
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