U.S. investigators suspect Chinese military involvement in COVID-19 origins

AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

According to a recent report, U.S. investigators have indications that COVID-19 may have originated from Chinese military research on bioweapons.

Multiple investigators from the U.S. State Department, who conducted an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19, expressed strong suspicions regarding the involvement of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). As reported by The Times in the UK, the Chinese military collaborated with the laboratory in 2016 to conduct virus experiments following the lab's initial achievements in altering pathogens.

“The trail of papers starts to go dark” after the military's participation, as stated by a U.S. investigator in an interview with The Times, further noting, “That’s exactly when the classified program kicked off.”

In 2012, researchers from the WIV initiated an exploration of an unused copper mine located in the Mojiang area of China. During their work with bat droppings, six researchers contracted severe illnesses and were hospitalized with flu-like symptoms, with three of the researchers eventually passing away.

Disturbingly, both EcoHealth Alliance, a partner organization engaged in pathogenic research with the WIV, and the U.S. government, which provided funding to EcoHealth Alliance and indirectly to the WIV, were kept unaware of the researchers' deaths.

Variations of the coronavirus were found within the cave, including strains that closely resemble naturally existing pathogens similar to COVID-19 prior to the pandemic. Following the emergence of COVID-19, the connections between the Mojiang cave and the outbreak were intentionally concealed, with Chinese authorities tightly securing access to the cave.

“My view is that the reason Mojiang was covered up was due to military secrecy related to [the army’s] pursuit of dual use capabilities in virological biological weapons and vaccines,” the U.S. investigator said.

Speaking to the Times, another investigator stated:

It has become increasingly clear that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was involved in the creation, promulgation, and cover-up of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to U.S. investigators, a widely discussed hypothesis is that the Chinese military had intentions to develop a bioweapon using a weaponized form of the coronavirus, along with a vaccine to protect their own population. There is evidence indicating that scientists at the WIV were involved in early vaccine research for COVID-19 as early as November 2019, well before the worldwide spread of the virus.

“I interviewed scientists in Asia who have close relationships with the Wuhan Institute of Virology,” another investigator said. “They told me it is their belief that there was vaccine research going on in the fall of 2019, pertinent to Covid-19 vaccination.”

Chinese military virologist Zhou Yusen was credited with patenting the initial COVID-19 vaccine in February 2020. However, the news surrounding Zhou's vaccine was met with doubt on a global scale. Chinese state media later stated that Zhou had passed away after an incident where he fell from the roof of the WIV. However, these reports have not been verified or confirmed.

As the Biden administration aims to ease tensions with China, recent disclosures regarding the Chinese military's role at the WIV leading up to and during the COVID-19 outbreak have surfaced. Earlier this year, China-U.S. relations became strained after a Chinese spy balloon was discovered traversing the continental United States.