It's aliens gary harris

If for a moment we can assume the premise of the OP's meme is accurate, then it's more likely that it was some sort of containment loss.

It did stop the zHong Kong protests

Exactly, it stopped protest.
Assume nothing.
The stories fed to the world from China are never complete.
Never.
The discontent with the communist system is far greater than the people are allowed to express without reprisal. The Hong Kong Protests are just the tip of things as they pertain to Hong Kong only.
Specifically the whole system is far more fragile than the brave face put out by China.
The coincidence of the latest strain of Corona virus's timed publicizing at the beginning of New Year Celebrations is not by chance. As much circumstantial evidence can be pieced together to indicate that the possibility that the Mutated Strain has been within the population of China as far back as July 2019 and reported as unrelated swine flu outbreaks by individuals who risked there safety to report the information.The time taken between them being aware of a problem and announcing a problem will eventualluy be known for a fact.
In Addition, I have a friend with a Chinese wife whom was due to take leave at the beginning of January 2020 and she was told without reasons in mid December that all leave was cancelled until further notice. This kind of practice is common when something major is happening but this is the first time since they have been together where she has also told him not to communicate with WEchat only gmail. Why would that be? Monitoring comms?

So Whether the Chinese government released the virus or allowed it to spread after being released by unintentional means doesn't matter. The point still remains that the timing for publicizing was a powerful means of controlling the worldwide chinese population and minimalising any Civil Unrest within the country in regard to democracy. The Authorities have even stopped fuel supplies into Wuhan and banned driving so you cant even get around the city unless you walk.Democracy is a bigger deal for the regular Chinese person than any media outlet is going to let you know or that you could learn from a Chinese subject in China due to the very real threat of death to you and your family. Various analysts believe that 70% of the Peoples Liberation Armys manpower resources are taken up with controlling civil unrest in populations around China.
Hopefully, this Coronavirus is bought under control quickly. And as a related, if anyone as an adult you know gets diagnosed with Whooping Cough get away from them ASAP as it appears that doctors have already misdiagnosed Coronavirus as WC. Ok end of rant.