A crisis is a terrible thing to waste, and I believe the CCP's police state was not going to waste this one. I don't believe national pride is at work here; I believe it is ideological pride. A democracy cannot be seen to produce better stuff than the Chinese model.

The CCP bosses may actually believe they know what's best for their people, but that just marks them as fools as well as tyrants. They are clever bastards, but they are bastards nonetheless.

IMO, they released the genome because they have PR concerns, too. The Belt and Road requires them to pretend to be decent human beings, when, in fact, they are just human beings.