China censorship fuels virus revival risk: rights watchdog

There is a "tremendous danger" of a COVID-19 resurgence in China due to Beijing's censorship and suppression during the coronavirus outbreak, Human Rights Watch warned on Thursday.

Meanwhile the "culture of denialism" among the leaders of the United States, Mexico and Brazil was costing lives, HRW executive director Kenneth Roth told reporters in Geneva via a virtual press conference.

The non-governmental organisation's chief said China was the "most notorious abuser" when it came to exploiting the pandemic to indulge in censorship.

He said Beijing had allowed the virus to spread by having "censored and suppressed the Wuhan doctors" who first tried to warn of the outbreak there in December.

"That's a classic example of how censorship is disastrous," said Roth.

"There's a tremendous danger that censorship is going to permit the virus to reactivate," he added. President Xi Jinping "has almost staked his personal prestige on saying there is no more human to human transmission within China", said Roth.

If a local authority in China found a new series of transmissions in their community, "are you going to tell anybody?". "That message from Beijing that we don't want accurate information but good news only is a recipe for the coronavirus's re-emergence."