The Sun
CHINA is feared to have spent decades illicitly researching biological weapons at dozens of secretive sites ahead of a potential apocalyptic World War 3.
The vast country is home to at least 50 covert labs where state scientists are thought to have manufactured deadly “bacteria bombs”, stockpiled deadly pathogens such as Anthrax, and even probed weaponising coronaviruses.
Fears about what is going on behind closed doors on China’s shadowy biolabs come as questions continue to rage over whether Covid may have leaked from a lab in Wuhan.
Evidence mounts to suggest as well that Covid may have been tinkered with, but China denies all allegations of wrongdoing over the pandemic.
And it comes after documents obtained by the US show the People’s Liberation Army commanders believed future battles could be fought with bioweapons.
The leaked paper stated biological and genetic weapons will be “the core weapon for victory” and outlined the perfect conditions to use them.
US State Department officials also sounded the alarm in a partly classified report – first published in April – which states Washington is concerned about the possible “biological threat” Beijing.
The report warns the close connections between the Chinese military and its civilian labs raises concerns that biological research could be “dual use”.
It states China is also believed to have had a historic bioweapons programme including “weaponized ricin, botulinum toxins, and the causative agents of anthrax, cholera, plague, and tularemia”.
US officials questioned whether China is complying with the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), a disarmament treaty that effectively bans the bioweapons – which was signed by China in 1984.
However despite this treaty, Beijing has seemingly been quietly looking at the potential of biological weapons for decades.
“Available information shows China engaged in activities that raise concerns with regard to its obligations under Article I of the BWC,” the report states, noting that additional information is classified.
And a worrying a review by US scientists in 2002 pointed to multiple sites allegedly involved in the research of deadly toxins and pathogens.
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One lab in Ya’nan was feared to have been working on four types of bio-weapons including “bacteria grenades” and “smoke-type bacteria bombs.”
Others in cities including Changchun, Kunming, Shenyang and Wuhan were said to be involved in the “research and cultivation of various biological warfare agents.”
The US Department of State later reportedly identified two facilities thought to have links to an offensive biological weapons programme.
It apparently pointed the finger at the Chinese Ministry of Defense’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology in Beijing and the Lanzhou Institute of Biological Produces.
China later insisted that the former was a biodefense-focused facility and the latter is a vaccine production facility.
In addition to these sites, it was estimated there were at least 50 other labs and hospitals being used as biological weapons research facilities.
The report suggested China has an advanced capability for deploying and dispersing aerosolized biological weapons.
This is especially worrying as aerosolized diseases are the most contagious and have the potential to infect the largest number of people.
However, firm facts about what is happening inside these highly-guarded state-run facilities is virtually impossible to pin down.
TOTAL SECRECY
Dr. Monika Chansoria, a Senior Fellow at The Japan Institute of International Affairs, said China’s “secrecy and ambiguity on these subjects remains unparalleled.”
She told Japan Forward: “If Chinese writings on chemical weapons are sparse, the case of any information on biological weapons is even worse.
“Although the Chinese government has declared past chemical weapons related activity to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons…the information has not been made public and remains strictly classified.”
In 2015, president of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences General He Fuch stated biotechnology will become the new “strategic commanding heights” of national defence.
He worryingly went on to become the vice president of the Academy of Military Sciences, which leads China’s military science enterprise.
In 2017, an edition of Science of Military Strategy – published by the PLA – even ran a section about biology as a domain of “military struggle”.
It mentioned the potential for new kinds of biological warfare to include “specific ethnic genetic attacks.”
And just last year, a chilling unconfirmed report emerged which said Beijing had struck a deal with Pakistan military to “expand potential bio-warfare capabilities.”
The Times of India cited a report which said the plan involved several research projects related to the deadly agent Anthrax.
MILITARY DEAL
It was claimed the Wuhan Institute of Virology signed the secret deal with Pakistan military’s Defense Science and Technology Organization (DESTO).
Intelligence sources were reported to have serious concerns about the project, said to involve China testing biological agents outside its borders in an apparent bid to minimise the “risk of drawing condemnation from the international community”
One senior source reportedly told the Klaxon: “DESTO has been engaged in various dual-use research projects related to Anthrax under a covert biological weapons program.”
There has also been growing fears over Beijing’s resistance to international monitoring of the work taking place inside its secretive state labs.
