Covid as a Chinese Bioweapon: The Latest Revelations By Brian Simpson
A media storm was created on the weekend when The Australian published revelations that the Chinese military had discussed using SARS coronaviruses as a bioweapon before the outbreak. The question then to be asked: is this a smoking gun, or rather, smoking virus? Well, it is not definitive proof, but needs to read alongside the lengthy critique of the natural origins hypothesis advanced by Nicholas Wade, recently featured in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, also at this bog. The plot thickens.
“Chinese military scientists discussed the weaponisation of SARS coronaviruses five years before the COVID-19 pandemic, outlining their ideas in a document that predicted a third world war would be fought with biological weapons.
The document, written by People’s Liberation Army scientists and senior Chinese public health officials in 2015, was obtained by the US State Department as it conducted an investigation into the origins of COVID-19, The Weekend Australian has confirmed.
The paper describes SARS coronaviruses as heralding a “new era of genetic weapons” and says they can be “artificially manipulated into an emerging human disease virus, then weaponised and unleashed in a way never seen before”.
The revelation features in an upcoming investigative book on the origins of COVID-19, titled What Really Happened In Wuhan, to be published by HarperCollins.
The chairmen of the British and Australian foreign affairs and intelligence committees, Tom Tugendhat and James Paterson, say the document raises major concerns about China’s lack of transparency over the origins of COVID-19.
The Chinese-language paper, titled The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons, outlines China’s progress in the research field of biowarfare.
“Following developments in other scientific fields, there have been major advances in the delivery of biological agents,” it states.
“For example, the new-found ability to freeze-dry micro-organisms has made it possible to store biological agents and aerosolise them during attacks.”
Some of China’s senior public health and military figures are listed among the 18 authors of the document, including the former deputy director of China’s Bureau of Epidemic Prevention, Li Feng. Ten of the authors are scientists and weapons experts affiliated with the Air Force Medical University in Xi’an, ranked “very high-risk” for its level of defence research, including its work on medical and psychological sciences, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Defence Universities Tracker.
The Air Force Medical University, also known as the Fourth Medical University, was placed under the command of the PLA under President Xi Jinping’s military reforms in 2017. The editor-in-chief of the paper, Xu Dezhong, reported to the top leadership of the Chinese Military Commission and Ministry of Health during the SARS epidemic of 2003, briefing them 24 times and preparing three reports, according to his online biography.
He also held the position of professor and doctoral supervisor in the Air Force Medical University’s Military Epidemiology Department.
Other authors include Zhang Jiangxia and Zhao Ningning, who both served as experiment scientists in the same department.
Intelligence agencies suspect COVID-19 may be the result of an inadvertent leak from a Wuhan laboratory, a line of inquiry under active investigation since early 2020. There is no evidence to suggest it was intentionally released.
Robert Potter, a digital forensics specialist who has worked for the US, Australian and Canadian governments, and has previously analysed leaked Chinese government documents, verified the authenticity of the paper.
“We were able to verify its authenticity as a document authored by the particular PLA researchers and scientists stated,” Mr Potter, the co-chief executive of Internet 2.0, said. “We were able to locate its genesis on the Chinese internet.”
There is concern about the high-risk nature of the biological research into coronaviruses Wuhan scientists were conducting, particularly involving “Gain of Function” research where virologists create new viruses that are more transmissible and more lethal. Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings said under Mr Xi’s increasing emphasis on civil-military fusion, China’s biological research into coronaviruses could be weaponised.
“There is no clear distinction for research capability because whether it’s used offensively or defensively is not a decision these scientists would take,” he said.
“If you are building skills ostensibly to protect your military from a biological attack, you’re at the same time giving your military a capacity to use these weapons offensively. You can’t separate the two.”
The document offers an insight into the way senior scientists at one of the PLA’s most prominent military universities were thinking about biological research development.
It notes how a sudden surge of patients requiring hospitalisation during a bioweapon attack “could cause the enemy’s medical system to collapse”.
The document refers to the research of Michael J. Ainscough, a former US Air Force colonel, on modes of conflict and bioweapons.
That research explains “next-generation bioweapons” as part of a US Air Force program aimed at better preparing American national security policymakers and senior members of the military to counter the threat from weapons of mass destruction.
Drawing on Colonel Ainscough’s research, the authors conclude a third world war “will be biological” and that “the core weapon for victory in World War Three will be bioweapons”.
“Colonel Ainscough’s conclusion states: ‘There are those who say the First World War was chemical, the Second World War was nuclear, and that the Third World War — God forbid — will be biological’,” it reads.
“There are two meanings to this: Firstly, the First and Second World Wars were chemical and nuclear wars respectively; and the Third World War will certainly be a biological war.
“Secondly, advanced weapons are the key factor in determining the fate of World War III. Colonel Ainscough probably believed that the two atomic bombs forced Japan to surrender, laying the foundation for victory in World War II; so, the core weapon for victory in World War III will be bioweapons”.
The study also examines the optimum conditions under which to release a bioweapon. “Bioweapon attacks are best conducted during dawn, dusk, night or cloudy weather because intense sunlight can damage the pathogens,” it states. “Biological agents should be released during dry weather. Rain or snow can cause the aerosol particles to precipitate.
“A stable wind direction is desirable so that the aerosol can float into the target area.”
Among the most bizarre claims by the military scientists is their theory that SARS-CoV-1, the virus that caused the SARS epidemic of 2003, was a man-made bioweapon, deliberately unleashed on China by “terrorists”.
Scientific consensus holds that SARS-CoV-1 was of natural origin, having crossed the xenographic barrier from Asian palm civets to humans, likely through the sale of wild animals in wet markets in Guangdong province, southern China. The 263-page paper was published in 2015 by the Chinese Military Medical Science Press, a Chinese government-owned publishing house managed by the General Logistics Department of the PLA.
The Weekend Australian has confirmed the paper was then obtained by senior officials at the US State Department in May 2020, who were investigating the origins of the pandemic.
Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and his chief China adviser, Miles Yu, made a passing reference to it in their Wall Street Journal op-ed in February on China’s laboratories, writing: “A 2015 PLA study treated the 2003 SARS coronavirus outbreak as a ‘contemporary genetic weapon’ launched by foreign forces.”
After this, the paper circulated among Chinese dissident communities online.
Luke de Pulford, the co-ordinator of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, also received the document and said that while many Chinese papers came across his desk, this one “stuck out”. “If this piece of work is representative of the scientific thinking of those who have advised the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, then there are very serious questions which need urgent answers,” he said.
Mr Tugendhat said: “China’s evident interest in bioweapons is extremely concerning.
“Even under the tightest controls these weapons are dangerous. This document raises major concerns about the ambitions of some of those who advise the top party leadership.”
Senator Paterson said “these revelations demonstrate exactly why nothing less than complete transparency from the Chinese Communist Party is required about the origins of COVID-19”.
“The Chinese government’s failure to fully co-operate with the WHO investigation does nothing to instil confidence in what we have been told so far,” he said.
“Only they can dispel speculation about alternative theories of the cause of this pandemic.”
World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has previously said there needs to be further investigation into the possibility of a lab accident in Wuhan, criticising his own team’s inquiry — that claimed a lab leak was unlikely — for not being thorough or extensive.
“Although the team has concluded that a laboratory leak is the least likely hypothesis, this requires further investigation, potentially with additional missions involving specialist experts, which I am ready to deploy,” Dr Tedros said on March 31.
“The team also visited several laboratories in Wuhan and considered the possibility that the virus entered the human population as a result of a laboratory incident.
“However, I do not believe that this assessment was extensive enough. Further data and studies will be needed to reach more robust conclusions.”
In 2020, the US State Department produced its annual report on arms control agreements which noted: “China continues to develop its biotechnology infrastructure and pursue scientific co-operation with countries of concern.
“The United States has compliance concerns with respect to Chinese military medical institutions’ toxin research and development because of the potential dual-use applications and their potential as a biological threat.”
Citing a past US government treaty compliance report, the Arms Control Association, an NGO promoting public understanding of, and support for, effective arms control policies, reported that China, along with North Korea, Iran and Syria, had “flagrantly violated” the convention: “The convention has been flagrantly violated in the past … the US government listed, in addition to Russia, (Biological Weapons Convention) states-parties China, Iran, and North Korea, as well as BWC signatory Syria, as possessing offensive biological weapons in violation of the treaty.”
The response from China:
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202105/1223003.shtml
And the update, that counters the CCP press:
“Chinese military scientists discussed the long-term psychological damage of bio-weapons on adversaries, their ability to traumatise foreign troops and the advantages of launching biological attacks at much lower cost than traditional warfare.
The Australian has obtained further details about a Chinese-language document written five years before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that describes SARS coronaviruses as heralding a “new era of genetic weapons” that can be “artificially manipulated into an emerging human disease virus, then weaponised and unleashed in a way never seen before”.
The document, first revealed by The Weekend Australian, also claims bio-weapons could be mass-produced at 0.05 per cent of the cost of traditional weapons when compared to the cost per square kilometre of damage.
Difficulties in building such a weapon are also discussed.
“It is relatively easy to produce a small amount of micro-organisms in a laboratory and also a mass cultivation of microbes in a factory,” it says. It also notes that “there is a big hurdle in developing a weapon system with a large effective destruction area in a real combat situation”.
Prepared by military scientists in 2015, the authors said biological weapons would “not only cause widespread morbidity and mass casualties but also induce formidable psychological pressure that could impact combat effectiveness.”
Titled The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bio-weapons, the document outlines China’s progress in the research field of bio-warfare, saying a third world war would be fought using biological weapons.
Among the 18 authors are People’s Liberation Army scientists. The editor-in-chief of the document, Xu Dezhong, was rated as an outstanding lecturer in the PLA, having joined in 1965, and has supervised more than 50 PhD students.
While referring to an overseas study that uses the pneumonic plague as an example of a bio-weapon, the 261-page document claims a death toll of more than 100,000 people could be reached if a city of five million was attacked.
In a chilling echo of many states’ experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors note that the release of a bio-weapon could have secondary effects by placing enormous burdens on a country’s healthcare system. Using the example of an attack on a city of five million with 10 per cent of the population requiring hospitalisation, the document notes it could “cause the enemy’s medical system to collapse”.
It also outlines the ability for a bio-weapon attack to instil fear and have ongoing psychological and long-term impacts, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, on soldiers and first responders.
“People will live under fear of attack for a considerable period of time after an attack, causing brief or lasting psychological impairment. For some specific high-risk groups, such as individuals with emotionally distraught childhoods, soldiers, in particular those receiving insufficient support and assistance, and rescuers who witnessed bloodshed on the battlefield, mental abnormalities like combat stress reaction will appear months or years after the warfare.
“The longer it takes to develop the symptoms, the more likely the mental disorder will last for a longer period of time,” it reads.
The authors also refer to a 1969 UN report that claims a 10 tonne bio-weapon had 300 times the destruction area of a nuclear weapon.
Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings said Western intelligence agencies had known for years that China was engaged in biological weapons research, just as they were involved in chemical and nuclear weapons.
“Obviously this has to be of massive concern because we are talking about weapons of mass destruction,” he said. “There’s a huge volume of publicly available information coming from Chinese scientific researchers that point to a base of knowledge about biological weapons that should worry everyone.
“What’s less clear is what is happening at a secret level that we don’t know about.
“My sense is that around the story of the coronavirus pandemic, there’s a bigger tale to understand about China’s research interests in how these pathogens can be turned into biological weapons.”
In 2020, the US State Department produced its annual report on arms control agreements, -Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments, which noted: “China continues to develop its biotechnology infrastructure and pursue scientific co-operation with countries of concern … The US has compliance concerns with respect to Chinese military medical institutions’ toxin research and development because of the potential dual-use applications and their potential as a biological threat.”
Xu, editor-in-chief of the Chinese-language document, reported to the top party leadership, including the Central Military Commission, during the 2003 SARS crisis, briefing them a total of 24 times.
He also prepared three reports for the General Office of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and General Office of the State Council.
Xu wrote several dozen papers over several years outlining his belief that SARS-CoV-1, the virus that caused the SARS epidemic of 2003, was of unnatural origin, with one of his students writing a thesis with the same hypothesis.
New Zealand data scientist Gilles Demaneuf and his colleagues at DRASTIC, an online group of scientists and researchers, said Xu was held in high esteem by the PLA.
“You would think Xu Dezhong may be some fringe scientist based on his conspiracy theories about SARS-1. Well, he is not — he served as a renowned professor of military epidemiology at the Air Force Medical University in Xi’an,” he said.
“His training was really good for sure: in 1981 he went to do some post-doc study in the US, at the very top Baylor College of Medicine and at the US CDC.”
We must note though, that the West was its worst enemy here, using the plandemic to roll in a communist agenda, so I believe that there is much more to this story.
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