The infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology at the center of the COVID-19 lab-leak theory was initiated in 2004 as a joint project between France and China. In 2015, French Intelligence officials warned the U.S. that China was backing out of its agreed upon collaboration.
“The U.S. federal government should have stopped funding research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2015 when China reduced its cooperation with the French in building and operating the lab, according to the leader of an investigation into COVID-19’s origins by the State Department under the Trump administration” reports The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Former State official David Asher, now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, told the DCNF French officials warned the U.S. State Department and their own foreign ministry about China’s behavior in 2015. By 2017, the French “were kicked out” of the lab and cooperation completely ceased.
According to Asher, this led French officials to warn the State Department they had grave concerns about China’s motivations. In January of 2021 at the end of the Trump administration, the State Department alleged the Wuhan lab had been involved in classified research on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017.
“The Chinese basically sucked State into its honey pot operation to gain access to U.S. technology, knowledge, and material support. Classic. Just as they have done in every sector” said Asher.
According to emails released by WikiLeaks, the U.S. State Department has expressed concerns since as early as 2009. The State Department, then under former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, asked what France knew about China’s plan to “vet incoming foreign researcher” and avoid technology transfer to countries of biological proliferation concern.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reports:
Between October 2009 and May 2019, the U.S. Agency for International Development provided $1.1 million to the U.S.-based EcoHealth Alliance for a sub-agreement with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to USAID.
EcoHealth Alliance also received funding from the Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency that was subcontracted to the Wuhan lab, New York magazine reported.
National Institutes of Health grants to EcoHealth Alliance totaling $600,000 between 2014 and 2019 were subcontracted to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The NIH, Defense Department and USAID should have stopped sending U.S. federal funding to the Wuhan lab back when the French warned the State Department in 2015, Asher said.
