Agreed, John. I think they may have overestimated their influence at the WHO--initially, it seems they felt confident they had Tedros in their pocket and indeed they did as he basically accepted Beijing's line and an insufficient investigation which mostly just took Beijing at its propaganda word, but Tedros probably realized that the entire US and European medical professions thought he was now a laughingstock (correctly, for being a horrible scientist) and he had lost all credibility and the WHO isn't viable without the US and Europe (and he also would have no status or prestige if they left/the WHO lost its own prestige), and so he felt some pressure to revive a modicum of professionalism at the WHO (for instance, when conducting an investigation, you have to actually investigate).

On the other hand, Xi is so ideological and Leninist (absolute submission to the party by everyone is his goal) that he may simply not have cared, and will always play the dominant strategy (game theory-wise) in every situation, regardless of whether it leaves China worse off in reality. That of course suggests people who have other goals besides creating the submission of China and the world to the CCP--for instance, a real focus on, say, science and justice, rather than attacking people interested in those things--may need to limit CCP influence.