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JUDY WOODRUFF: That party 
Congress in Beijing where the 
Hong Kong proposal was made had

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been postponed from March, as 
China battled the coronavirus.

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The Trump administration has 
highlighted the possibility 
that COVID-19 was accidentally

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released from a Chinese lab 
by Chinese scientists. That 
accusation is unproven.

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But, as Nick Schifrin 
reports, questions of 
science have challenged 
U.S.-China collaboration

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and given way to 
increased confrontation.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: It feels like 
a descent into the heart of 
darkness, Chinese virus hunters

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in Wuhan looking for 
coronaviruses in bats in a video 
posted as the pandemic began.

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Scientist Tian Junhua 
acknowledges in narration, 
there are serious risks.

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TIAN JUNHUA, Virus Hunter 
(through translator): 
Because when you find 
the viruses, you are

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also most easily 
exposed to the viruses.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: Tian says 
he hunts for viruses 
to create vaccines, 
before viruses can hunt

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people. And the promotional 
video ends with a brag, how 
many viruses Chinese scientists

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have discovered.

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It may seem shocking, but it's 
normal work for virus hunters 
the world over. And Chinese

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scientists have been 
trained by the West.

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PETER DASZAK, President, 
EcoHealth Alliance: 
We're working in caves 
across Southern China

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to found out where the risk 
is highest and who is at most 
risk of this new disease.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: Peter 
Daszak is the head of 
New York-based EcoHealth 
Alliance, which received

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Bush, Obama, and Trump 
administration funding 
to research in China.

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"PBS NewsHour" filmed him five 
years ago with our partner 
Global Health Frontiers, as he

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tried to improve defenses to 
viruses that jump from animals 
to humans, like SARS-CoV-2,

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the virus that causes COVID-19.

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PETER DASZAK: And what we're 
trying to do is to say, what's 
the next one coming along,

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and can we stop it before 
it evolves into a very 
lethal human pathogen?

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NICK SCHIFRIN: To that work, 
Tian works in a Wuhan lab 
and received one of the first

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live samples of 
SARS-CoV-2 on December 26.

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He and Chinese colleagues 
wrote one of the first papers 
about a COVID-19 patient. In

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fact, in the last weeks 
of December, teams of 
Chinese scientists collect 
dozens of SARS-CoV-2

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strains to share online. And 
Chinese scientists submitted 
the first full genome after just

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two weeks of work.

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That's incredibly fast, a sign 
of how far Chinese scientists 
have come, says Gregory

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Gray, an infectious disease 
epidemiologist who's worked 
with Chinese scientists since

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2011.

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DR. GREGORY GRAY, Infectious 
Disease Epidemiologist: 
The majority of 
scientists I work with are

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excellent and often very 
much Western-trained 
and Western-thinking. 
They value truth.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: But the 
Chinese government put a 
brake on that truth-telling.

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On January 1, Wuhan Institute 
of Virology's director general, 
Yanyi Wang, messaged her

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colleagues, saying the National 
Health Commission told her the 
lab's COVID-19 data shall not

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be published on social 
media and shall not be 
disclosed to the media.

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And on January 3, the commission 
sent this document, never 
posted online, but saved by

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researchers, telling 
labs to destroy COVID-19 
samples or send them to 
the depository institutions

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designated by the state.

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Secretary of State Mike 
Pompeo has repeatedly 
called that a cover-up.

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MIKE POMPEO, U.S. Secretary 
of State: The party chose to 
destroy live virus samples,

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instead of sharing them or 
asking us to help secure them.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: Last Friday, the 
Chinese government admitted to 
the destruction, but said it was

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for public safety.

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LIU DENGFENG, Chinese 
National Health Commission 
(through translator): 
We released a guideline

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on January 3, aiming to 
prevent biohazards of 
labs and the occurrence 
of secondary disasters

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caused by unknown virus.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: Those secondary 
disasters have occurred before. 
The World Health Organization

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says, in 2004, the virus that 
caused the previous year's SARS 
epidemic accidentally got out

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of a Beijing lab, where it was 
being analyzed by scientists, 
causing small, brief outbreaks.

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Scientists believe a 
1977 influenza epidemic 
spread after a Russian 
lab accident. And leaks

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have even happened in the U.S.

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WOMAN: We learned today 
that about 75 government 
scientists may have been 
exposed to live anthrax

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bacteria.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: The Trump 
administration has repeatedly 
raised the possibility of a lab

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accident sparking the 
COVID-19 pandemic.

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MIKE POMPEO: There's 
enormous evidence that's 
that where this began.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: National 
Security Adviser Robert 
O'Brien added a crucial caveat.

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ROBERT O'BRIEN, U.S. National 
Security Adviser: Look, there's 
certainly the potential it came

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from the laboratory.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: Some scientists 
we interviewed agree the 
potential exists and worry about

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lab security.

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TIM TREVAN, Biological 
Safety Expert: There's 
still this culture of 
compliance, rather than

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a culture of safety.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: Tim Trevan is 
a biological safety expert. He 
questions whether the Chinese

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government would 
allow scientists to 
point out mistakes.

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TIM TREVAN: If you have 
a society where it's 
extremely hierarchical, 
and people don't question

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their superiors, and, if, 
on top of that, you have a 
political system that disappears

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whistle-blowers, then it's a 
very difficult starting point 
to have a learning organization

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where everyone feels safe to 
speak up when they see things 
which aren't going right.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: But Trevan and 
other scientists say there is 
no evidence of a lab leak. And

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over the last few decades, 
the Chinese have dramatically 
improved their facilities.

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DR. GREGORY GRAY: There's a 
lot of scrutiny now. There's 
video cameras monitoring who

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does what. Often, they have 
rules like we do, where a 
junior person will have to be

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partnered with senior personnel.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: But the Chinese 
government has admitted it 
needs to strengthen biosecurity.

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WOMAN: Chinese President 
Xi Jinping says epidemic 
prevention and control 
systems must be strengthened.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: In February, Xi 
Jinping announced new biosafety 
rules. The pro-Communist Party

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tabloid Global Times wrote that 
labs faced chronic inadequate 
management issues, though

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denied this had anything 
to do with COVID-19.

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But at the Wuhan Institute 
of Virology, at the center of 
many U.S. accusations, Deputy

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Director Yuan Zhiming wrote 
a paper about China's lab 
security last year that admits:

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"Most laboratories lack 
specialized biosafety 
managers and engineers. 
This makes it difficult

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to identify and mitigate 
potential safety hazards."

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The U.S. argues, the 
Chinese government must 
allow Chinese scientists 
to voice those concerns

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as a matter of life and 
death, as Deputy National 
Security Adviser Matt 
Pottinger put it, quoting

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a famous Chinese 
writer in mandarin.

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"Those with the fortitude to 
seek and speak the truth in 
China today may take comfort

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in something Lu Xun 
wrote: Lies written in 
ink can never disguise 
facts written in blood."

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For Xi Jinping, today's meeting 
is designed to project and 
ensure national unity. He has

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centralized authority. 
And that's affected 
even the scientists.

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DR. GREGORY GRAY: Some 
of our best collaborators 
come from Beijing and 
from one of the leading

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military epidemiological 
institutions there.

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And in the last few years, 
there's been more scrutiny with 
respect to me going, visiting

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them in their facilities. Their 
availability has been somewhat 
reduced. And so I attribute

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it to sort of a consolidation 
of power of Xi Jinping.

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NICK SCHIFRIN: But it goes both 
ways. The Trump administration 
ended Peter Daszak's

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grant to work with 
Chinese scientists.

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Collaboration is eroding, 
as the two countries 
increase confrontation.

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For the "PBS NewsHour," 
I'm Nick Schifrin.