China Cracks Down

FILE - In this Tuesday, March 10, 2020 file photo, people walk by a giant TV screen at a quiet shopping mall in Beijing broadcasting news of Chinese President Xi Jinping talking to medical workers at the Huoshenshan Hospital in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province, as he visited the center of the global virus outbreak. The government is handing out hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to scientists researching the virus’ origins in southern China and with the military, The Associated Press has found. But it is monitoring their findings and mandating that the publication of any data or research must be approved by a new task force managed by China’s cabinet, under direct orders from President Xi Jinping, according to internal documents obtained by the AP. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

China clamps down in hidden hunt for coronavirus origins

MOJIANG, China (AP) — Deep in the lush mountain valleys of southern China lies the entrance to a mine shaft that once harbored bats with the closest known relative of the COVID-19 virus.

This photo provided by Zhong Hanneng shows a candle she lit in memory of her son, Peng Yi, during a meal of noodles at her home in Wuhan, China, in July 2020. Peng first started coughing on Jan. 23 at the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, but because of a shortage of test kits, he wasn't able to get tested for days. His first test result came out negative, barring him access to a hospital bed, and he wasn't able to be hospitalized until weeks later. By then his condition was critical, and he passed away on Feb. 19. (Zhong Hanneng via AP)

China testing blunders stemmed from secret deals with firms

This August 2020 photo provided by a Uighur person under quarantine shows an unmarked white bottle containing traditional Chinese medicine on a table in Urumqi, China. As parts of the Xinjiang region in China's far northwest enters the 45th day of a second grueling lockdown due to a coronavirus outbreak, the government there is coercing some residents into using traditional Chinese medicine despite a lack of rigorous clinical data proving it works. (AP Photo)

In China’s Xinjiang, forced medication accompanies lockdown

Alif Baqytali hugs his mother, Gulnar Omirzakh, at their new home in Shonzhy, Kazakhstan. Omirzakh, a Chinese-born ethnic Kazakh, says she was forced to get an intrauterine contraceptive device, and that authorities in China threatened to detain her if she didn't pay a large fine for giving birth to Alif, her third child. (AP Photo/Mukhit Toktassyn)

China cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization

FILE - In this Thursday, Feb. 23, 2017 file photo, Shi Zhengli works with other researchers in a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province. On Dec. 30, 2019, Wuhan health officials issued an internal notice warning of an unusual pneumonia, which leaked on social media. That evening, Shi, famous for having traced the SARS virus to a bat cave, was alerted to the new disease, according to an interview with Scientific American. Shi took the first train from a conference in Shanghai back to Wuhan. (Chinatopix via AP)

China delayed releasing coronavirus info, frustrating WHO

In this Feb. 17, 2020, photo released by Xinhua News Agency, patients infected with the coronavirus take rest at a temporary hospital converted from Wuhan Sports Center in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province. Top Chinese officials secretly determined they were likely facing a pandemic from a novel coronavirus in mid-January, ordering preparations even as they downplayed it in public. Internal documents obtained by the AP show that because warnings were muffled inside China, it took a confirmed case in Thailand to jolt Beijing into recognizing the possible pandemic before them. (Xiao Yijiu/Xinhua via AP)

China didn’t warn public of likely pandemic for 6 key days

In the six days after top Chinese officials secretly determined they likely were facing a pandemic from a new coronavirus, the city of Wuhan at the epicenter of the disease hosted a mass banquet for tens of thousands of people; millions began traveling through for Lunar New Year celebrations.

In this June 5, 2019, photo, residents of the Hui Muslim ethnic minority walk in a neighborhood near an OFILM factory in Nanchang in eastern China's Jiangxi province. The Associated Press has found that OFILM, a supplier of major multinational companies, employs Uighurs, an ethnic Turkic minority, under highly restrictive conditions, including not letting them leave the factory compound without a chaperone, worship, or wear headscarves. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Gadgets for tech giants made with coerced Uighur labor

NANCHANG, China (AP) — In a lively Muslim quarter of Nanchang city, a sprawling Chinese factory turns out computer screens, cameras and fingerprint scanners for a supplier to international tech giants such as Apple and Lenovo.