The WSJ author had brought us other CIA-approved gems about WMDs in Iraq once upon a time.
You might be onto something with garden-variety liberals feeling 'free' to try and blame China now that Trump's out of sight, though.
In case other people besides myself were confused, we're apparently talking about Michael Gordon, and this WSJ article [0], not this one [1]. Michael Gordon also wrote [2], which reported on the Bush administration's claims that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons.
[0] https://www.wsj.com/articles/intelligence-on-sick-staff-at-w... [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/wuhan-lab-leak-question-chinese... [2] https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/08/world/threats-responses-i...