Report: China focusing SARS-CoV-2 research on military use

FPI / March 14, 2024

Geostrategy-Direct

Did anyone regard the work at Wuhan Institute of Virology as benefiting the health of the global population by for example contributing to health solutions for the coronavirus?

As it remains overmatched militarily by the United Sates and its allies, China has gone all in on biological weapons development which could provide a major asymmetric advantage, according to a think tank’s new report.

Recent virology studies “demonstrate that China is now able to operate its own dual-use virology research agenda on-shore and without international inputs or considerations,” according to the report by the Chinese Communist Party Biothreats Initiative.

On Jan. 4, the Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, part of the Beijing University of Chemical Technology, conducted a high-risk experiment with SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

Researchers conducting the experiment stated that a new coronavirus isolate taken from a pangolin caused 100% mortality in humanized mice.

“The researchers then tried to take the ‘lethal’ tone out of their report with a new Jan. 24, 2024, version that attempted to justify their study as an approach for vaccine or drug development studies,” the think tank’s report said according to security correspondent Bill Gertz at the Washington Times.

None of the recent SARS-CoV-2 research has been linked to a current vaccine, therapeutic, prophylactic or diagnostic, the report said, raising questions about the potential for using the virus for military purposes.

“The fact that this work continues, including in Wuhan itself, likely demonstrates that there is a broader strategic logic underpinning this continued high-risk pathogen research,” the report said.

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