Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian raised concerns in a Wednesday press conference about the United States running biological labs around the world, echoing sentiments from Russian statesmen questioning military involvement in their operation.
“Why does the U.S. build so many bio-labs all over the world? Why is the effort led by the military? What is the purpose?” Zhao asked. “How many sensitive biological resources and how much information has it gleaned from relevant countries? Do the labs conform with safety standards? Are there risks for leaks?”
China and Russia are both raising the issue of biological laboratory safety in light of demands from the free world for more information regarding the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a Chinese biological laboratory that was studying coronavirus strains at the time that the Chinese coronavirus pandemic erupted. American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in May that he was aware of evidence linking the Wuhan institute to the pandemic, which originated in the eponymous city.
China has since announced plans to invest heavily in building more biological research facilities.
Zhao – who has promoted a conspiracy theory that the Chinese coronavirus pandemic began not in China, but in the United States, and that the U.S. Army caused it – was responding to a question from the state-run media outlet Global Times which asked:
Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev said on October 20 that the US research activities in bio-labs in members of the Commonwealth of the Independent States have caused grave concern. The US not only builds bio-labs in these countries, but also tries to do so in other places across the world. However, its research lacks transparency and runs counter to the rules of the international community and international organizations. I wonder if you have a comment?
Zhao claimed that the international community has previously questioned U.S. biological research activity and that China has repeatedly challenged the transparency of such labs. He further demanded the U.S. “be open, transparent and responsible, respond to international concerns” and “clarify its biological militarization activities overseas.”
Russia has also questioned U.S. bio-labs in former Soviet republics, particularly in Georgia and Ukraine. Medvedev’s remarks on Wednesday echo earlier comments in July in which he asserted the need for transparency in said labs and the need for international cooperation in the face of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
“This is not the case for a number of our colleagues, and I mean the position the United States takes when it works in laboratories deployed in certain countries that border us or are even members of the Eurasian Economic Union,” Medvedev said, according to Tass. “In any case, such an activity may even be beneficial, but it must raise no suspicions.”
“Unfortunately, such suspicions arise in the modern world,” he concluded.
Russia has faced intense scrutiny for its militarization of bioweapons and questionable coronavirus research. In late August, Russian dissident Alexei Navalny fell ill aboard a flight to Moscow. German doctors claim to have found traces of Novichok, a Russian-developed nerve agent used in political assassinations, in his system.
Though unconfirmed, international suspicions centered on the Kremlin, which previously used Novichok in a botched attempt to assassinate former intelligence agent Sergei Skripal in 2018.
Moreover, Russia has touted its development of a vaccine for the Chinese coronavirus, drawing international skepticism with only a few key allies embracing the development. Venezuela has begun trials of Sputnik V, the Russian developed vaccine candidate. Both Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko have optimistically embraced Sputnik V.
India recently rejected a plan to implement large-scale trials of the vaccine candidate in the country, citing the lack of information from earlier trials. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro announced in a Facebook post on Wednesday that he would not like the Chinese vaccine candidates in his country, writing, “the Brazilian people WON’T BE ANYONE’S GUINEA PIG.”
China has actively slowed down potential investigations into the origins of the Wuhan virus. Initially, China asserted the coronavirus originated in Wuhan, where the earliest known cases were diagnosed, before changing gears and accusing the U.S. of releasing the virus into the world.
Gao Fu, the director of China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in January that “the origin of the new coronavirus is the wildlife sold illegally in a Wuhan seafood market.”
In the face of contradictory claims from the Chinese government, many have speculated that the virus originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Li-Meng Yan, a former University of Hong Kong virologist who fled China over concerns the government would “disappear” her, has loudly backed this theory.
“The seafood market is a smokescreen,” Li-Meng asserted. “It comes from the lab, the lab in Wuhan.”
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