I've read before that some major sellers on ebay somehow do manage to have negative feedback removed. I've seen several threads to that effect, with screenshots to prove it, so it is definitely a 'thing'. And I agree with you, fair negative feedback should not be removed.
I don't think it happens for all or even most sellers though, just a few major ones. It definitely doesn't happen for all Chinese sellers either as I have seen plenty of them with a fair bit of negative or neutral feedback too.
A lot depends on what you actually said in the negative. We would need to see that before we could make a stab as to whether it was unfairly removed or not.
Like you, I believe China & the spread of the virus etc is worth investigation. I suspect they covered up a lot.
But that is a political matter and unrelated to your purchase on ebay. It would be inappropriate (in my opinion anyway) if you made any reference to political type stuff in a feedback comment. I am not saying you actually did, just making the observation that if you did make any reference to it, that could be grounds for a seller to ask for feedback removal.
I think there are also several other things/topics that can cause feedback to be removed. Abuse, mentioning ebay or paypal claims too I believe is a no-no?
So it comes down to-what exactly did you say in the feedback?
