In the video, the two reporters watch a laptop and narrate their version of events. The clip features well-produced graphics and claims Markson’s reporting was criticised by “China hawks”, including at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which it said was “infamous for driving up anti-China sentiments”.
Zhe said Markson had “made big money and big fame” and was enjoying international celebrity off the back of her reporting, which he dismissed as “just an example of ‘China panic’ in Australian media.”
Markson, who began reporting the theory in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph in March 2020, has since written a book on the subject called What Really Happened In Wuhan. She said there had been many articles in Chinese state media attacking her coverage. Propaganda tabloid The Global Times has published numerous articles on Markson’s reporting, with an un-bylined opinion piece in September last year labelling her a “bugler for American lies on China”.
“I think it shows how worried the CCP is about the international calls for an investigation into a possible lab leak and it’s why Chinese propaganda outlets have stepped up their attacks against me personally ahead of my book’s release next month,” Markson told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
“China has no legitimate reason to resist the calls, including from the WHO, for an inquiry into whether Covid-19 leaked from a Wuhan laboratory.”
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The video centres on Markson’s front page story for The Daily Telegraph in May 2020, which was swiftly criticised for its reliance on a 15-page dossier that she said was prepared by Western governments and stated China deliberately suppressed or destroyed evidence of the coronavirus outbreak. The story was quickly picked up and quoted by national security experts and commentators in the US.
However, other media outlets including this masthead reported the dossier was a background document created by the US State Department, which contained no classified information, and was based on publicly available material such as news reports.
Markson’s reporting has shed new light on some of the activities of the Wuhan laboratory, including obtaining footage from inside the facility, which showed live bats being kept in cages.
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