A directive from the Chinese government posted on the websites of numerous universities and research institutions instructed them to submit all academic papers on the Wuhan coronavirus to Communist Party officials for review, Radio Free Asia (RFA) revealed on Tuesday.

The order, clearly intended to suppress research into the origins of the coronavirus, was posted on Friday but deleted after Western media discovered it.

According to Radio Free Asia, the directive can still be seen on a cached web page from Fudan University in Shanghai. Google searches found copies of the now-deleted notice lurking at other university and research sites, including the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, the city at the center of the epidemic. 

The directive referred to a meeting of the Chinese State Council’s epidemic task force on March 25. It outlined special instructions for handling research related to the Wuhan coronavirus:

“Academic papers relating to the novel coronavirus epidemic need to be reviewed and filed according to their classification,” the directive, copies of which had been recently removed from several Chinese university websites, said.

Any research on tracing the origins of the virus “should be managed strictly,” the order said.

Such papers must be scanned and emailed straight to the education ministry, while other coronavirus-related topics could be reviewed by the college authorities, it said.

A third area of concern was the centralized management of release for any developments in coronavirus vaccine research, the document said.

Employees of both Fudan University and China University of Geosciences claimed not to know anything about the special directive and told RFA they were not aware of any notices being deleted from their websites, even though this one clearly was.

Commentators in China and Hong Kong told RFA the Chinese Communist Party is eager to “muddy the waters” about the origin of the virus and wants to “suppress academic freedom for researchers” so they don’t dig too deeply into the subject.

“I think it is a coordinated effort from [the] Chinese government to control [the] narrative, and paint it as if the outbreak did not originate in China,” an anonymous Chinese researcher fearful of government retaliation told CNN on Monday.

“I don’t think they will really tolerate any objective study to investigate the origination of this disease,” CNN’s source added.

CNN actually got someone at the Chinese Education Ministry to confirm the directive was genuine. 

“It is not supposed to be made public. It is an internal document,” said an individual at the ministry’s science and technology department who refused to identify himself. A few hours later, the directive was quietly deleted from the Fudan University website.

Chinese researchers and academic editors queried by CNN gave conflicting answers about how much government scrutiny has previously been given to virus research. Some said the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has always reviewed such papers, while others said publication was much easier before the CCP launched its propaganda campaign to obscure the origin of the virus in March.

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) noted that if the CCP is vetting coronavirus research papers for political reasons, it would be a violation of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Health Regulations, which set high standards of transparency for medical research in all member nations. 

This would only be the latest of many blatant violations of those health regulations by China during the coronavirus pandemic, but, to date, the World Health Organization has shown little interest in holding the CCP accountable. Banks has asked the U.S. State Department and Attorney General to file suit against China at the U.N. International Court of Justice for these violations.

“If China’s leaders hadn’t become embarrassed by the outbreak and tried to cover up its spread, the world may have had a better chance to prepare for this or even contain it in Wuhan or China. Instead, we have a pandemic. China shoulders most of that blame,” Banks said last week.

“Rather than succumb to the propaganda and spin of Chinese officials, the world must hold them accountable for mishandling this outbreak. If the United Nations cannot even do that, it has completely lost its purpose,” he argued.