Chinese military had deep ties to Wuhan lab suspected of COVID-19 outbreak, cables show
Jerry Dunleavy
Video Embed
Newly-unearthed State Department cables show the United State government’s early concerns about the deep ties and research collaboration between a Wuhan lab and the Chinese military amid the search for COVID-19’s origins.
The heavily-redacted cables, which warned about the connections between the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the summer of 2020, were obtained by U.S. Right to Know through the Freedom of Information Act, and appear to be based upon information analyzed by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), which is essentially the U.S.’s unofficial embassy in Taiwan.
U.S. AND CHINA LOCKED IN BATTLE TO BECOME SUPERIOR IN SPACE
The three cables seem to have originally been classified “SECRET” but had that crossed out and replaced with “Sensitive” instead. The cables touch on the Chinese Communist Party’s military-civil fusion (MCF) program pushed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
The trio of cables also mention the links the Wuhan lab had with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS), the PLA Institute for Chemical Defense (ICD), the Central Military Commission-founded Wuhan Institute of Biological Products (WIBP), and China’s high-tech R&D “863 Program.”
The Wuhan Institute of Virology has long been suspected as the source of the COVID-19 global pandemic that killed more than 1 million Americans, and the new cables shine a spotlight on the State Department’s efforts in the height of the outbreak to understand the role the lab played and its secret ties to the Chinese military.
One cable from August 2020 had the email subject line “Taiwan Analysts Probe PLA Links to Biotech Labs and Companies in Wuhan.” The cable described Wuhan as “China’s Biotech Center and a Model City for MCF Development” and then listed a series of subheadlines detailing the Wuhan lab’s long-standing links to the Chinese military, with the sections underneath entirely blacked out.
The cable said “PLA Contractor Involved in the Construction of the Wuhan Institute of Virology” and “PLA Presence at WIV Continued After Construction Completed” as it listed yet-redacted “WIV Personnel with Possible PLA Ties.” The cable said that “[Redacted] Identifies Two PLA Bio-Warfare Research Institutes: AMMS and ICD” and that “Official Chinese Websites Show Robust Cooperation between WIV and PLA AMMS.”
The cable also said that the “PLA ICD May Be Linked to the WIV Through CAS and 863 Program” and detailed redacted links between the “PLA and the Wuhan Institute for Biological Products.” The cable said the “WIV’s Formal Partnership with WIBP” was “Another PLA Link” and also said there was “Cyber Evidence of PLA Shadow Labs at WIV and Bioengineering University.”
The Trump State Department released a fact sheet in January 2021, which included information on “Secret Military Activity” at the Wuhan lab.
“Despite the WIV presenting itself as a civilian institution, the United States has determined that the WIV has collaborated on publications and secret projects with China’s military,” the fact sheet said. “The WIV has engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017.”
Dr. David Asher, a proliferation expert who helped lead the State Department’s 2020 investigation into the origins of COVID-19, told the Washington Examiner this week that his investigation “coordinated” with the State Department’s East Asia Bureau, and the American Institute in Taiwan “contributed to our understanding regarding classified PLA research at WIV.” Asher added that “the info behind the fact sheet came from more sensitive, non-diplomatic sources.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) released a lengthy report on COVID-19’s origins in May, where he wrote that “the WIV maintains a collaborative relationship with the PLA AMMS that is routine and robust.” The senator said that “personnel employed by the PLA AMMS appear to maintain a working presence at the WIV, and in some cases, serve in institutional roles” and that “some WIV researchers were trained by the PLA AMMS.”
The GOP minority staff on the Senate Health Committee also released an April report which said PLA Professor Zhou Yusen, the director of the 5th Institute at the AMMS, had “worked with the WIV, and possibly at the WIV, episodically, for several years prior to the pandemic” and that Zhou or AMMS researchers “may have been working at the WIV no later than the fall of 2019.”
The committee staff found that “there is reason to believe Zhou was engaged in SARS-related coronavirus animal research with WIV researchers beginning no later than the summer or early fall of 2019.”
Another newly-released cable from August 2020, sourced from the AIT in the Taiwanese capital of Taipei, had the subject line of “[Redacted] Say CCP Aggressively Mobilizing Civilian Resources for Military Purposes with Major Focus on Biotech.”
The subheadlines for the heavily-redacted cable include details on the “Recent Patterns of PLA Integration into Civilian Academic Institutions” and “Biotech’s Prominence under the MCF Strategy.” The cable said that “AIT found seven articles on the official website of the Wuhan branch of CAS referencing the MCF strategy.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed earlier this year the bureau has long believed with “moderate confidence” that COVID-19 originated at a Chinese government lab, and it was revealed the Energy Department now believes with “low confidence” that the coronavirus started at a Wuhan lab.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released an assessment in August 2021 stating that four U.S. spy agencies and the National Intelligence Council believed with just “low confidence” that COVID-19 most likely had a natural origin.
Yet another new cable from July 2020, also from the AIT, assessed that China’s “Central Government — Not Local Officials — Responsible for the Coronavirus Cover-Up.” The cable said that “Beijing Knew Earlier Than They Admit” and concluded, “Who Ordered the Cover-Up? The Signs Point to Beijing, Not Local Officials.” The cable assessed that the “Initial Outbreak Could Have Been Contained in China if Beijing Had Not Covered it Up.” The cable said that “Xi Lied to Obfuscate His Role in the Cover-Up.”
The Times of London recently reported, “Investigators who scrutinized top-secret intercepted communications and scientific research believe Chinese scientists were running a covert project of dangerous experiments, which caused a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and started the Covid-19 outbreak.”
And it was recently reported by Public and Racket that “sources within the U.S. government say that three of the earliest people to become infected with SARS-CoV-2 were Ben Hu, Yu Ping, and Yan Zhu, who “all were members of the Wuhan lab suspected to have leaked the pandemic virus.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
EcoHealth Alliance’s Peter Daszak was a longtime collaborator with the Wuhan lab and its “bat lady” leader Shi Zhengli. Daszak steered hundreds of thousands of dollars in NIH bat coronavirus funding to the Chinese institute.
President Joe Biden signed into law the “COVID-19 Origin Act of 2023” in March, claiming that “my administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible.”