The People’s Republic of China is a totalitarian Communist dictatorship. But dictatorships are selective about what they censor. Anyone living in one therefore knows to read between the lines, looking for what’s there by first searching for what isn’t there.

Here’s what isn’t there.

China has imposed restrictions on the publication of academic research on the origins of the novel coronavirus, according to a central government directive and online notices published by two Chinese universities, that have since been removed from the web.

Under the new policy, all academic papers on Covid-19 will be subject to extra vetting before being submitted for publication. Studies on the origin of the virus will receive extra scrutiny and must be approved by central government officials, according to the now-deleted posts.

Not only is there censorship, but all references to the censorship have been deleted.

The PRC is claiming that it’s the victim of a smear campaign. But if that’s so, why censor its own researchers who surely aren’t out to smear the beloved Xi and his wonderful regime?

The only reason to engage in close censorship of your own researchers on the question of the origin of the Chinese Virus is because there’s information out there that would be potentially damning.

The People’s Republic has something to hide.