Researchers sequence SARS-CoV2 variants all the time, all over the world - it's a pandemic after all. The Chinese did some great work, but had they not done it first others would have.
Sorry, I forget this detail is not widely known. They were the first working on it from samples at ground zero, before it was a pandemic. Back when nobody knew anything.
The free and public release gave the world a head start on what was then a very localized thing with little if any spread. Remember: my comment was in response to an attempt to credit capitalism with the speedy development of a vaccine. Capitalism helped, but wasn't what did it.
