Infectious disease scientists at Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg, which has some of the highest security requirements in Canada, have worked for years with researchers from the Chinese Communist military to experiment on deadly pathogens. Intelligence experts have expressed concern about this.
At the National Microbiology Laboratory’s Special Pathogens Unit in Winnipeg, seven scientists have conducted collaborative experiments with Chinese Communist military researchers and co-authored six studies on infectious diseases such as Ebola, Lassa fever and Rift Valley fever, according to the Globe and Mail. The publication dates for the studies are between early 2016 and early 2020.
One of the Chinese researchers, Feihu Yan, is from the PLA’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences, an arm of the Chinese Communist Party. The Institute of Military Medicine of the PLA’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences.
The PLA’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences, established in 1951, was the first academy of sciences under the Chinese Communist Party’s military, covering an area of more than 7,900 acres and 1.3 million square meters, and became responsible for disease prevention and control for the Chinese Communist Army in October 2003, when it became known as the PLA Center for Disease Prevention and Control. The academy is engaged in biotechnology research and brings together the highest-end researchers, ranking first in the CCP military.
As an employee of the CCP’s Military Research Institute, Yan Feihu worked for a time at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg and is listed as a co-author on all six of these research reports. In 2 of the reports, he is listed as a member of both the Winnipeg lab and the CCP Military Medical Research Institute.
Collaboration with the Chinese Communist Military
Two former Winnipeg Lab scientists, Xiangguo Qiu and her biologist husband, Keding Cheng, were fired in January of this year. Prior to their dismissal, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) had urged authorities to revoke their security clearance to visit the national microbiology lab on the grounds that the couple’s work with China’s Wuhan Institute of Virus Research posed a national security concern, and expressed concern that Qiu might have given information to the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research, according to a report in the Globe and Mail last week.
Xiangguo Qiu worked at the Winnipeg Laboratory’s Special Pathogens Program and was the former head of the Vaccine Development and Antiviral Therapy Division. Qiu was a co-author of five of the six studies mentioned above; Kedin Cheng participated in a study on Ebola.
Eric Morrissette, a spokesman for the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), which heads the Winnipeg lab, acknowledged that Xiangguo Qiu did work with researchers from the Chinese Communist military. He also said that all individuals working at the Winnipeg lab had undergone security checks.
However, the Globe and Mail reports that the Military Medical Research Institute is rated “extremely high risk” under a rating system compiled by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).
The system is used to rate how likely it is that an international institution’s cooperation with a Chinese university “could be used by the Chinese Communist Party military or security agencies for surveillance, human rights abuses or military purposes.
Intelligence expert: “Crazy move”
Andy Ellis, former assistant director of operations for the Canadian Intelligence Agency, said it would be “crazy” for the Public Health Agency of Canada to cooperate with the Chinese Communist military. In recent years, the Chinese Communist military has increased its recruitment of scientists and invested heavily in medical research as part of its military modernization strategy.
“It’s unwise because this is Canada’s top laboratory,” Mr. Ellis said. Mr. Ellis said, “It’s incredibly naive for them [the lab].”
Shockingly, he said, the Public Health Service allowed scientists from the Chinese Communist military into the Winnipeg lab, “which makes no sense.” The highest level of security clearance is required to access the lab.
Stopping the development of new collaborations
The Public Health Service said all collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology has been terminated since Qiu Xiangguo and her husband and others were expelled from the Winnipeg lab on July 5, 2019, and the lab has not developed any “new collaborations” with China on research projects.
However, the Public Health Service says that there are still some completed experiments with China that are awaiting reports, which could take months or even years to be published.
So far, federal authorities have only said they are investigating the Qiu Xiangguo couple’s case, but remain tight-lipped about the reasons for their dismissal.
James Giordano, a professor of neurology and biochemistry at Georgetown University and a senior fellow in biological warfare and biosecurity at the U.S. Naval War College, said he believes the research of any scholar working in China could be used by Beijing for military purposes.
He said China is interested in developing new biological weapons; Beijing is particularly interested in altering pathogens so as to create a new type of organism that is not yet listed in the international Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. At the same time, Beijing is also interested in increasing its so-called “heroic rescue” capabilities, such as increasing its international influence by providing epidemic cures to other countries.
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