Despite its repeated denials, revelations are coming out the Chinese government has been working on a secret military project for 9 years to find and research animal viruses, according to documents obtained by the U.K.’s Daily Mail on Sunday.
The Trump administration had long speculated the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been conducting military research amid the global coronavirus pandemic that is believed to have begun in November 2019 in Wuhan.
“The Chinese have made it clear they see biotechnology as a big part of the future of hybrid warfare,” State Department weapons expert David Asher told the Mail. “The big question is whether their work in these fields is offensive or defensive.”
The documents show research called “the discovery of animal-delivered pathogens carried by wild animals” detected the “dark matter” of biology in spreading disease, including 143 new diseases discovered in the first 3 years of the project, according to the report.
The de facto “Bat Woman” at the WIV lab, Shi Zhengli made trips to find samples in caves and helped lead a team of 5 that include Cao Wuchin, a senior Chinese army officer and government bioterrorism adviser, the Mail reported.
