Ed Uthman via Wikimedia Commons

Why does China have a high security, Bio-Safety Level-4 (BSL-4) laboratory in Wuhan? What is it, and what does it do? Is it part of a secret Chinese bioweapons research program? Is it related in any way to the novel coronavirus outbreak?

Considering that Wuhan was the original outbreak of the current COVID-19 virus pandemic, these are important questions that much of the press seems to be ignoring. But it is clear that the Chinese government doesn’t want them asked.


According to Nature, the respected International Weekly Journal of Science, this unique bio-containment laboratory in Wuhan, built with assistance from France, is only three years old. It was cleared by the Chinese government in 2017 to work with the world’s most dangerous pathogens, but according to the UK’s Daily Mail, it may have only become operational ‘for global experiments on BSL-4 pathogens,’ in January 2018.

BSL-4 labs are built to contain highly infectious and lethal agents such as the Ebola, Nipah and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever viruses, as well as SARS, coronavirus, and pandemic influenza virus.

Known as the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, it is housed within the Chinese Academy of Sciences and was specifically designed to help Chinese scientists “prepare for and respond to future infectious disease outbreaks,” according to a 2019 report published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The Wuhan lab is the first of between five and seven BSL-4 labs the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) plans to build across the Chinese mainland by 2025.

Nature explains that BSL-4 is the highest level of biocontainment: its criteria require scientists to wear Hazmat suits, use filtered air and treat water and waste before they leave the laboratory. Safety protocols also require researchers change clothes and shower before and after using lab facilities.

The Wuhan lab was BSL-4 certified by the China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS). The CNAS examined the lab’s infrastructure, equipment and management, paving the way for the Ministry of Health approval.

Chinese leaders claim the lab is for scientific research to aid the world. “It will offer more opportunities for Chinese researchers, and our contribution on the BSL‑4-level pathogens will benefit the world,” said George Gao in 2017. Gao is the director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology in Beijing.

Tim Trevan, founder of CHROME Biosafety and Biosecurity Consulting, said in Nature that China’s investment in a BSL-4 lab may, above all, be a way to prove to the world that the nation is competitive. “It is a big status symbol in biology,” he says, “whether it’s a need or not.”

However, as Nature also notes, some scientists outside China worry about pathogens escaping, and others are concerned these labs could be part of a covert biological weapons program. The plan to expand this lab into a bigger network of labs only heightens these concerns. One BSL-4 lab in Harbin is already awaiting accreditation; the next two are expected to be in Beijing and Kunming.

Back in 2017, Trevan noted in Nature that he was concerned about China’s repressive authoritarian system and culture, explaining that an open culture is important to keeping BSL-4 labs safe, and questioning how easy this will be in China, where society emphasizes hierarchy.

“Diversity of viewpoint, flat structures where everyone feels free to speak up and openness of information are important,” he says. The aggressive CCP cover-up and censorship of outbreak information from Wuhan only reinforced this fear.

Meanwhile, China’s President-for-Life Xi Jinping only added fuel to the fire when on Feb. 14 told an emergency meeting in Beijing that a national system to control bio-security risks was needed “to protect the people’s health.” Xi called lab security a “national security issue.” The timing was suspicious, at best.

Free Pressers noted that soon after Xi’s Feb. 14 comments, the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology released a new directive titled: “Instructions on strengthening bio-security management in microbiology labs that handle advanced viruses like the novel Coronavirus.”

All this seems to indicate that the Chinese government has a very real problem securing its deadly pathogens.

It is also important to note that the SARS virus escaped from other high-level (BSL-3) containment facilities in Beijing multiple times before, notes Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, in Nature. Ebright is also not convinced of the need for more than one BSL-4 lab in mainland China.

He also worries that the large planned expansion of BSL-4 labs in China and its excess capacity can be used for the potential development of bioweapons.

“These facilities are inherently dual use,” Ebright says, referring to the labs being able to be used for both civilian and military purposes. Other analysts have also expressed their concerns these labs could be part of a greater covert bioweapons research program.

President Trump is right to emphasize the Chinese origins of this novel coronavirus. The world needs to demand openness and transparency from the Chinese regime, and much more oversight and investigation into the Wuhan biolab, and its planned network of sister labs.

Paul Crespo is a defense and national security expert. He served as a Marine Corps officer and as a military attaché with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at US embassies worldwide. He holds degrees from Georgetown, London, and Cambridge Universities. Paul is also CEO of SPECTRE Global Risk, a security advisory firm, and a Contributor to American Defense News.

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jan Housenga
jan Housenga
3 years ago

It is obvious to me and many other americans that this virus was released onto the world to destroy economies, especially the USA. This is a blatant act of war, period.

ina
ina
3 years ago
Reply to  jan Housenga

exactly!

Rough/Rider9
Rough/Rider9
3 years ago
Reply to  ina

I said that when this first was announced! Most of China could Die in this plague, along wit hall of rest of the world! The Chinese would still have enough people to take control of the planet! That is their sworn goal, and always has been!

April Williams
April Williams
3 years ago
Reply to  Rough/Rider9

And we have people right here in America who are helping China, while betraying this country like Joe Biden, some of the democrats and most of MSM are assets of China.

Michael Picasso
Michael Picasso
3 years ago
Reply to  April Williams

April… time to wake up!
Just this morning and for the last two days your president Trump has been on national TV highlighting the “GREAT” job Walmart is doing in response to the Virus; connected in the same sentence with MAJOR bailout $$$ for Airlines, Auto, Oil Companies, and ???Walmart. Seriously!
I’ve always thought Walmart = China… but now you want to call out Biden as culprit. Really!
I too believe that China could be the likely responsible party; but I’ve read that information was presented by W. H. O and medical investigative groups to Trump about China in early January… it was TOTALLY IGNORED.
YES, this was Fact Checked

Ernie Nanos
Ernie Nanos
3 years ago
Reply to  April Williams

Michael, The WHO indicated on January 12, 2020, that the coronavirus was NOT contagious. What I just said is fact checked. Where did you get your information from, on the WHO, the fake news? The head of the WHO is a political hack for dictators!!!!!!

Ernie Nanos
Ernie Nanos
3 years ago
Reply to  April Williams

That should read January 21, 2020, with regard to the WHO stating that the coronavirus was not contagious!!!!!

Dennis B Anderson
3 years ago
Reply to  jan Housenga

I have to agree with you they don`t even want to help us out with the virus they gave us. Wasn`t that ever so nice of them. They are talking about the caucacian verility? What are they putting into the food and drugs they sell us? It`s time to shut down all business with them. The Chinese are buying up Arizona & Texas no more Real Estate sales. No more moving Chinese goods on our docks let it rot. No more unloading ships with Chinese goods. It`s time to bring those jobs back Obie 2 Tone said would never happen. Make China think we will do business with them if they take full responsibility of the Wuhan virus and make reparation payments. When they pay us keep in place no dealings with China. It`s been said China want`s to be the world leader in 2025. Personally it bothers me that I have to buy fall apart Chinese goods. We are at the front door of World War 111. World War 11 we freed them from the Japanese. It`s 1939 all over again but it`s with the Chinese. It`s time they get along without us. They can argue about whatever amongst themselves.

George Matyas
3 years ago

Lets look at how we got here. The USA allowed Russia to have eastern Europe, and China to take control of southern Asia . The problem wasn’t the form of government but people wanting absolute power, and you see where that got us. We are led to believe that vaccines protect us, that wrong, what vaccine do is better prepare our immune system responses to new problems. Because of our lifestyles our immune systems are no longer as robust as they should be, and the results are what happening today.

Gersh
Gersh
3 years ago
Reply to  jan Housenga

I believe that this virus was released by an individual to warn the world what China was developing. If China released this as part of a war then we would have had 30 million or so sick people before figuring out what happened. But now we have a warning of what China is developing and we must take this very seriously. Nuclear weapons are not necessary to destroy any country

ML
ML
3 years ago
Reply to  Gersh

That is not a far fetched scenario

Sonia Carvalho
Sonia Carvalho
3 years ago
Reply to  jan Housenga

and to eliminate the elderly population in the world for economic reasons as well as to erase history (the real history which is no long taught in schools). The elderly and senior population who either lived through the WWII or after know the real history and they are living witnesses. They planned to re write history books and then take over. Just pay attention to the turmoil that most if not ALL nations have been going through during the past 3-4 years (sex change for kids, eliminating religion, free sex, disrespect towards everything). My opinion.

John Vieira
3 years ago
Reply to  Sonia Carvalho

The “seeds” for your last (sentence) were being laid over 40 years ago…and were and still are supported by the Main Sewer Stream Media…

Bill
Bill
3 years ago
Reply to  Sonia Carvalho

Our nation and its people thrived when God was welcomed in our government, our institutions and the ‘hearts and minds’ of the people. We were the supreme nation of the world; a nation often described as a “lighthouse to the world”. When he was no longer welcome, evil came in filling the hearts and minds of many with evil thoughts and behavior. It is not likely that God created the pandemic that is causing havoc around the world; it is His absence that allows it. Unfortunately too many are too blind to see. We are free to make the choice of following the One with all knowledge and wisdom or, following some human who thinks they have all knowledge and wisdom.

Floyd Hardee
3 years ago
Reply to  jan Housenga

Amen. We need God, and through him we will receive common sense, and righteous understanding.

Naushad
Naushad
3 years ago
Reply to  Floyd Hardee

http://www.alislam.org

Ernest Lane
Ernest Lane
3 years ago
Reply to  jan Housenga

Read Michael Pillsbury’s book “China’s Hundred-Year Strategy.” This is in keeping with it. They developed in that lab to unleash on us and lost control.

Adrian Rehak
Adrian Rehak
3 years ago
Reply to  jan Housenga

I would not be surprised if this is bio warfare, either intentional or accidental. However, I would hate to have anyone that has commented here on a jury. Where is the evidence upon which you have convicted China? There isn’t even circumstantial evidence, only self generated rumors. Obviously, there isn’t a scientist in the bunch of commenters as there is no data or evidence. The first rumor I heard was that the virus came from eating snakes or bats. Are you all sure it didn’t come from Martians? To be clear: I don’t trust China one iota, but please how about evidence before conviction?

john burns
3 years ago
Reply to  Adrian Rehak

Anecdotal evidence is evidence. And there is plenty of it to at least form an educated opinion. It started in China. The Chinese then hid it from the rest of the world. When they couldn’t hide it any longer they refused help from any outsiders. They allowed millions of infected people to leave China to infect the rest of the world. There may as yet be no evidence that they did it maliciously, but they took advantage of of the situation and now seem to be in a better position, economically, versus the rest of the free world. Their plan is still working.

Mike
Mike
3 years ago
Reply to  john burns

Well said Americans and our Leaders had better wake up!!

BRETT
3 years ago
Reply to  Adrian Rehak

I know people from Wuhan, they knew the virus was killing people back in oct 2019, for the first reply chinese people do not eat bats, but the obama admin.gave wuhan biolabs 3.7 million for research on bats and the covid-19 virus, the democrats wanted china to find a way to make covid-19 infect humans, before that corona viruses did not infect humans but after injecting 100%proteins into virus now covid-19 infects everything that breaths, humans, animals . the chinese people fled to get their families away from virus and spread it around the world,..infected chinese people are packaging medical supplies and sending to democrat regions,nursing homes ,prisons,hospitals.
THIS COVID-19 WAS MANUFACTURED BY THE WUHAN BIOLAB FOR MASS EXTERMINATION OF HONG KONG,TAIWAN,SINGAPORE AND NOW TRUMP SUPPORTERS,DOCUMENTATION SHOWS OBAMA GAVE WUHAN BIOLABS 3.7 MILLION FOR RESEARCH OB COVID-19

Jojodmonkey
Jojodmonkey
3 years ago

The Wuhan Hubei Chinese Military Bio Weapons Lab coronavirus absolutely came out of this facility the ChiDems are totally responsible for the spread and the ChiDems worldwide should be executed immediately. Let’s start with the ones in the USA!

Jim
Jim
3 years ago

The WHO should demand access to this bio lab immediately. If this virus originated in this lab they must held accountable to the world, both mecicallyand financially. Period. Not one peep from the MSM about this possibility.

dennis
dennis
3 years ago
Reply to  Jim

WHO? (note – and not one peep from WHO)

skai
skai
3 years ago
Reply to  dennis

Dennis Because WHO is infested with low life people from third world and corrupt people.

June
June
3 years ago
Reply to  dennis

Exactly – the director general helped China cover it. He’s a big fan of China, taking up for them at every turn. His qualifications need to be closely looked into.

John
John
3 years ago
Reply to  Jim

The WHO (not the rock band) are Chicom lap dogs. They came out and said the virus was not being passed from person to person as Wuhan was being overrun with the Chinese virus. I guess WHO thought the whole city was eating bats and that’s how they were getting the virus. WHO is absolutely worthless. Formed by the UN in 1948. UN another useless organization.