Report: China censors COVID-19 research publications

China has ordered new policies to restrict the publication of COVID-19 academic research, reports revealed on Monday, citing a central government directive and online notices published by two Chinese universities.

According to the reports of CNN, all declarations have since been removed from the internet, which is the burning question the Chinese government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic following allegations it underreported cases and permitted flights to remain open during the key initial stages of the outbreak.

The report said that the Chinese government is allegedly trying to withhold information about the virus.

The report accuses that the Chinese Ministry of Education’s Science and Technology department issued a directive saying, “academic papers about tracing the origin of the virus must be strictly and tightly managed.”

The directive also reportedly outlined an approval process for such publications. Scientists submit research papers to academic committees at universities, who then send them to the Education Ministry’s science and technology department.

The ministry then sends the papers to a State Council, China’s chief administrative authority, task force for scrutinizing, which in turn tells the universities if they are allowed to publish the research in journals, CNN reports revealed.

“Other papers on Covid-19 will be vetted by universities’ academic committees, based on conditions such as the ‘academic value’ of the study, and whether the ‘timing for publishing’ is right,” reports said.