In his Shukan Shincho essay “Spread It to Everyone,” Masayuki Takayama uses an allegory in which the reader becomes Xi Jinping to examine the Wuhan institute, the Chinese Communist Party’s initial response, the silencing of Dr. Li Wenliang, the WHO’s conduct, and the Asahi Shimbun’s reporting from Wuhan. The essay raises the disturbing possibility that China allowed the infection to spread abroad rather than suffer the consequences alone.

July 20, 2020
This chapter was originally published on July 20, 2020.
It introduced Masayuki Takayama’s essay “Spread It to Everyone,” which appeared in Shukan Shincho in July 2020.
Takayama employed a dreamlike narrative in which a person awakens as Xi Jinping and receives a report from the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party.
Through this allegory, he presented his interpretation of the Wuhan outbreak, the Chinese authorities’ initial response, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the WHO, Dr. Li Wenliang, and the reporting of the Asahi Shimbun.
At the center of the essay is the hypothesis that, had China alone suffered the economic and military consequences of the outbreak, it would have been removed from global supply chains, and that the Chinese Communist Party therefore permitted the infection to spread internationally.
The essay also criticizes a series of reports by an Asahi Shimbun correspondent who was granted access to Wuhan, arguing that the reports followed the Chinese Communist Party’s official chronology and helped dismiss doubts raised by the United States.
Editorial Note for the 2026 Republication
The Japanese text above is reproduced exactly as it was published on July 20, 2020.
References in the text to a “biological weapon being synthesized at the Wuhan institute” and to the deliberate global spread of the virus are claims presented in Takayama’s allegorical and hypothetical argument.
They are not presented here as scientifically established facts.
In June 2025, the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens stated that the weight of the available evidence suggested zoonotic transmission, while also emphasizing that missing data prevented a final determination of the virus’s origin. ntelligence Community has continued to examine both natural exposure and a research-related incident as plausible hypotheses.
It has nevertheless assessed that SARS-CoV-2 was not developed as a biological weapon and that there is no direct evidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology possessed SARS-CoV-2 or a close progenitor before the pandemic. evidence has confirmed that some people experience prolonged neurological symptoms after COVID-19, including difficulty thinking or concentrating, headaches, sleep problems, and dizziness.
This does not mean that every person who recovers from COVID-19 is left with severe brain damage. anslation
July 20, 2020
He reported that it closely resembled a biological weapon then being synthesized at the Wuhan institute.
It spread through the air, and those infected could die of pneumonia, while even those who recovered could be left with severe damage to the brain.
The following is from an essay by Masayuki Takayama entitled “Spread It to Everyone,” published in today’s issue of Shukan Shincho.
Masayuki Takayama is a journalist without equal in the postwar world.
This essay proves that fact once again.
One morning, you wake up in a luxurious bed in Zhongnanhai.
You are just as you were when you came into the world.
Beside you, two beautiful women who might rival Xi Shi are dozing, equally unclothed.
While you are still confused, the door opens and a bespectacled man rushes inside.
Is that not Wang Huning, the brilliant scholar and member of the Politburo Standing Committee whom you once saw in the newspaper?
“Chairman, it is terrible.
SARS has appeared in Wuhan.”
At this point, you realize that you have been transformed into Xi Jinping, the emperor of China.
In any event, you send the unclothed women away and gravely ask what has happened.
Wang reports that a SARS-like pneumonia is spreading in Wuhan and has already caused an enormous number of deaths.
He also reports that it closely resembles a biological weapon then being synthesized at the Wuhan institute.
It spreads through the air, and those infected may die of pneumonia, while even those who recover may be left with severe brain damage.
It is said to be an excellent weapon that, if scattered over American military bases, could deprive their forces of combat capability for years to come.
Now it has leaked in Wuhan.
Our Chinese people speak with their mouths wide open, so the speed of infection is rapid.
In no time, the People’s Liberation Army could become a collection of people with brain damage.
There is another problem.
China has prospered as the “factory of the world.”
The Wuhan pneumonia will bring that prosperity to a halt.
If that happens, the world will remove China from its supply chains without hesitation.
The entry and departure of Chinese people will also be prohibited, and China will wither in isolation.
Trump, who called Xi Jinping a thief of intellectual property and imposed high tariffs, will probably clap his hands and laugh.
That must be avoided at any cost.
What, then, should be done?
Wang, who studied at Berkeley, is a man of common sense.
He recommends that China close itself off and at least avoid the disgrace of building mountains of corpses throughout the world through an epidemic originating in China.
If China did so, the world would praise its efforts, cooperate in defeating the epidemic, and show understanding toward China’s recovery.
A Japanese person might have agreed with Wang’s words, but at this moment you have become Xi Jinping, Chinese in your very heart.
Xi Jinping says:
“Are you Japanese?
What good is it if China alone is sacrificed?”
Xi continues.
Companies from countries throughout the world operate in Wuhan, and many people travel in and out.
If we remain silent, they will carry the virus home and it will spread.
If the entire world becomes Wuhan, China, which understands the true nature of the virus, will gain the advantage.
Chinese people will, of course, also be infected, but they have grown up amid filth and are accustomed to epidemics.
At most, only 300,000 will die.
Compared with the 50 million Mao Zedong killed during the Great Leap Forward, that would qualify as good government.
Beijing therefore remained silent.
During that period, the evidence remaining at the biological-weapons institute where the outbreak began was erased.
Anyone who noticed the Wuhan pneumonia was immediately silenced.
Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist who posted on social media that a SARS-like disease had appeared at the Wuhan market, was detained and died soon afterward.
Tedros of the WHO was a man whom China had bought with money.
Until the Wuhan pneumonia had sufficiently penetrated the world, he continued to say that there was no human-to-human transmission.
Once the virus had spread throughout the world, Beijing announced the “lockdown of Wuhan” and informed the world of the epidemic’s existence.
Before long, deaths in the United States began to reach approximately one thousand a day.
Just as Xi intended, countries throughout the world drew the losing ticket, while China, which cared nothing for the lives of its people, gained the advantage.
Trump, however, is no fool.
He saw through Xi Jinping’s scheme, and Britain, Australia, and France joined the circle of anger.
Xi told Wang to do something.
Wang replied, “Use the newspaper we used for the Tiananmen Square incident.”
At that moment, you awaken in your own bedding at home.
Beside you lies, spread out across the bed, someone who is most certainly not Xi Shi.
At your bedside, the Asahi Shimbun prominently carries a series by one of its reporters who had been specially permitted to enter Wuhan.
The series faithfully follows the schedule Xi created to “delay discovery by three months,” mocks Trump’s suspicions, and skillfully argues for Xi Jinping’s innocence.
Incidentally, a British medical institution has announced the neurological aftereffects of the coronavirus.
It did so six months after China had confirmed them.
Did you know that the characters for Asahi are pronounced “deception”?