The following lengthy and technical article in a journal called GreatGameIndia presents her and her Wuhan Institute of Virology lab in a very different light. It basically suggests that her lab was the source and creator of an engineered virus that escaped confinement. Other articles have made similar claims.
COVID19 Files – Scientific Investigation On Mysterious Origin Of Coronavirus
If that is true, Zhengli would be both a hero for her earlier work and a massive villain for accidentally unleashing this pandemic.
I don't don't understand the field nearly well enough to know whether the article presents a credible case. Perhaps someone else here with some actual expertise could weigh in.
The article you posted from Great Game India is worth reading. It traces scientific reporting from Dec., 2019 through Feb. 2020 showing exactly how the Communist propaganda machine ramped up to destroy the truth that this bioweapon was released from their lab in Wuhan.