Amid the rising pressure on China with the possibility of COVID-19 getting leaked from their lab in Wuhan, the Communist government may hunt and execute the scientists responsible for the same. The alert was sounded by Ross Terrill, a research associate at Harvard's Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and the author of 11 books on China.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology has remained at the center of the controversy surrounding the possible source of COVID-19 leak. The lab is known to have been conducting several studies related to viruses found in bats.
Expert Believes 'Culprits' Would be Executed Quietly
According to The Sun, 83-year-old Terrill has hinted at the possibility of China launching manhunt to track down the scientists behind the possible leak and execute them. Speaking to the outlet, the expert said that in order to save his face, Chinese President Xi Jinping might accept the possibility of a "freak lab accident" resulting in global pandemic outbreak.
"China might find culprits for the mistake in the lab and execute them, to show Beijing's pure intentions. The world will not be pleased, but it gets China off the hook - showing no malign intention," said Terrill.
Stating that China would execute the 'culprits' by adopting some other measure unlike the regular executions carried out in their country, Terrill said that it would be a risky move and the Chinese President would be confirming the deadly Covid outbreak "started its nasty life" in Wuhan.
China Should Admit to the Leak
Claiming that Xi might be in "political trouble" and the truth about a potential lab leak might never be uncovered, Terrill said that the 'cover-up' in China is a political decision.
"Everything is a cover-up in China, and I'm not sure we will ever get the truth because 'China Inc' is just behaving in its usual fashion. If Xi miscalculated the first WHO visit in winter 2019, don't rule out that Xi might be in political trouble. Xi appears to be riding high, but there are Chinese who think he has overreached," said the political analyst.
Urging the Chinese government to accept the leak and move on, Terrill said that he still thinks if the evidence of an accidental leak grows, China would be better off to say so and move on from there.
"We've reached the point where people all over the world want to know more about this. Viruses do escape from laboratories and as long the Biden probe dismisses the idea China did it deliberately to infect the world, why is it such a loss of face for China to admit it was an accident?" he added.
