Cyberspace Administration of China
Central Internet regulator in China
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| March 17 2023 | WHO Director-General criticized China's data-sharing, stating the data should have been shared three years earlier and calling for greater transparency. |
| March 14 2023 | An international group of researchers presented a preliminary analysis of the swab sample data at a World Health Organization meeting, suggesting an animal origin was more likely, particularly involving raccoon-dogs as an intermediate host. |
| March 4 2023 | Raw data from Huanan market swab samples was released or leaked, making the genetic sequences publicly accessible for the first time to non-Chinese institutions. |
| January 1 2023 | Huanan live-animal market was closed, with initial swab samples collected after the removal of animals. |
| March 2022 | China Daily and Global Times republish an article from the British conspiracy website The Exposé falsely claiming COVID-19 was created by Moderna. |
| February 2022 | Chinese researchers published a preprint analysis of Huanan market swab samples, concluding the coronavirus was likely brought in by humans rather than animals. |
| 2021 | At least 47 journalists were detained in China for their reporting on the initial coronavirus outbreak. |
| October 2021 | A University of Oxford researcher discovers Chinese state media accounts spreading a theory that the virus originated from American lobsters from Maine. |
| August 2021 | The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs requested Chinese state media remove false allegations about the United States pressuring WHO to blame China for the pandemic, which were attributed to a non-existent Swiss biologist. |
| July 2021 | The Chinese foreign ministry called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate Fort Detrick as a potential source of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. |
| April 2021 | The European External Action Service published a report exposing Chinese state media's misinformation tactics, specifically noting their selective highlighting of vaccine side-effects and deliberate disregard of contextual information to present Western vaccines as unsafe. |
| January 2021 | Chinese state and CCP-affiliated media outlets, including CGTN and Global Times, spread misinformation by raising doubts about the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. They called for an investigation into elderly deaths in Norway and Germany after vaccination, alleging deliberate downplaying of deaths and propaganda to promote Western vaccines while portraying Chinese vaccines as safer. |
| January 2021 | Hua Chunying renewed the conspiracy theory claiming the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated from the U.S. military biology laboratory Fort Detrick, which quickly trended on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. |
| 2020 | Li Wenliang died from the virus after being silenced for his early warnings about the COVID-19 outbreak. |
| 2020 | China officially apologized to Li Wenliang's family and overturned the warning letter issued to him and other doctors. |
| December 2020 | Chinese state media misrepresent Alexander Kekulé's research, claiming a COVID-19 variant originated in northern Italy, which Kekulé denounced as 'pure propaganda'. |
| December 2020 | BBC published a retrospective investigation exposing how Chinese state media and online government censors suppressed negative COVID-19 information and manipulated reporting. |
| December 2020 | People's Daily publishes a non-peer-reviewed study by Chinese Academy of Sciences scientists suggesting earliest human-to-human transmission occurred on the Indian subcontinent months before the Wuhan outbreak. The study was later withdrawn. |
| December 28 2020 | Zhang Zhan was sentenced to 4 years in prison, convicted of 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble' for her reporting. |
| November 2020 | People's Daily publishes a false claim that COVID-19 was 'imported' into China. |
| November 27 2020 | WHO's top emergency director Michael Ryan interviewed by Reuters, stating investigations would begin where human cases first emerged, contrary to Chinese state media's claims. |
| July 2020 | Chinese Embassy in Kazakhstan's Economic and Commercial Office spread misinformation about a supposedly deadlier virus alongside COVID-19 in Kazakhstan. The false information was subsequently propagated by Xinhua News Agency and then spread to other Chinese media outlets and internationally. |
| June 2020 | By summer, China had largely brought the COVID-19 virus under control. |
| June 2020 | China's State Council Information Office published a white paper titled 'Fighting COVID-19: China In Action', promoting Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as an effective treatment for COVID-19, claiming that 92% of confirmed cases received Chinese herbal formulas and drugs. |
| May 2020 | Twitter places fact-check labels on two Chinese government tweets falsely suggesting the virus originated in the US and was brought to China by Americans. |
| May 2020 | Zhang Zhan stopped sharing information on social media about the outbreak. |
| April 2020 | China imposes restrictions on academic research publication, requiring all COVID-19 related academic papers to be vetted by the ministry of science and technology before publication, effectively controlling the narrative about the virus's origin. |
| April 22 2020 | Li Zehua returned to social media with a brief statement, reportedly under pressure from authorities. |
| March 2020 | Chinese state media spread a theory about COVID-19 potentially originating in Italy, misquoting Italian doctor Giuseppe Remuzzi's comments about unusual pneumonia cases in November and December 2019. |
| March 2020 | The Washington Post reviews Chinese state media and social media, discovering widespread anti-American conspiracy theories about COVID-19 origins. |
| March 2020 | Ai Fen, director of Wuhan Central Hospital's emergency department, revealed she was instructed by superiors not to disclose information about the virus to prevent public panic. |
| March 25 2020 | The Group of Seven discussed China's 'intentional disinformation campaign' related to the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| March 17 2020 | CGTN (Chinese state media) aired a video in Arabic that was classified as COVID-19 misinformation by Reporters Without Borders. |
| March 12 2020 | Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesmen Zhao Lijian and Geng Shuang alleged at a press conference that Western powers, specifically the US Army, may have 'bio-engineered' the coronavirus. |
| February 26 2020 | Li Zehua was caught by authorities after livestreaming part of a chase while reporting on the outbreak in Wuhan. |
| February 15 2020 | Xi Jinping published an article claiming he learned of the epidemic on 7 January 2020 and issued containment instructions, though original public records did not support this claim. |
| February 9 2020 | Fang Bin, another citizen journalist broadcasting images from Wuhan, was arrested and not seen in public since. |
| February 6 2020 | Chen Qiushi disappeared after his reporting, with a friend later stating he was being supervised by a government department. |
| January 2020 | Early in January, doctors and nurses began noticing they were becoming infected with the virus. Hospital administrators contacted the City Government and Health Commission, but medical personnel were prohibited from wearing protective gear to prevent causing public panic. |
| January 2020 | Local officials in Wuhan downplayed COVID-19 risks during annual congresses, leaving 11 million residents unaware and vulnerable to the virus. |
| January 29 2020 | Research published indicating human-to-human transmission of COVID-19 may have started in December 2019, bringing criticism of health authorities for delayed disclosure. |
| January 29 2020 | Research published indicating human-to-human transmission may have started in December 2019, leading to criticism of health authorities for delayed disclosure. |
| January 26 2020 | People's Daily editor tweeted a claim about Huoshenshan Hospital being built in 16 hours, which was later revealed to be a misleading marketing photo of modular container buildings. |
| January 23 2020 | Chen Qiushi began reporting on the coronavirus outbreak from Wuhan, documenting the early stages of the pandemic as a citizen journalist. |
| January 20 2020 | Chinese government officially confirmed human-to-human transmission of COVID-19, despite earlier evidence known to doctors and health workers who were forbidden to speak publicly. |
| January 1 2020 | The Huanan live-animal market was closed, marking a critical point in the early investigation of COVID-19's origins. |
| January 1 2020 | According to Wang Guangbao, medical professionals believed a SARS-like virus might be spreading, but police warnings discouraged open discussion. |
| 2019 | Chinese government begins propagating claims that COVID-19 originated across multiple global locations, not just in Wuhan, starting from Autumn 2019. |
| December 30 2019 | Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan Central Hospital, identified seven cases of a virus similar to SARS and warned fellow doctors in a chat group to wear protective clothing. |
| November 2019 | Unusual pneumonia cases reported in Italy, which Chinese state media later used to suggest an alternative origin of the COVID-19 virus before the Wuhan outbreak. |
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia article COVID-19 misinformation by China, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.