The U.S. Department of Education is investigating a link between the University of Alabama and the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The official Chinese laboratory is in the spotlight over the origin and spread of the new coronavirus pandemic. The University of Alabama says it has been found to have “no relationship or connection” with the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research.
The U.S. Department of Education launched an investigation into the University of Alabama after it was mentioned in the “International Cooperation” section of the Wuhan Institute’s official website.
In a letter sent Dec. 22 to University of Alabama President Stuart Bell, Reed Rubinstein, chief deputy counsel for the U.S. Department of Education, said the university may have violated the Higher Education Act of 1965. The law requires colleges and universities to fully report “gifts from or contracts with foreign countries” to federal authorities.
The Department of Education asked the university to report within 30 days a comprehensive list of any gifts or contracts from or with the Chinese Communist Party since January 2015 and the contact information of anyone who may have been involved.
The Wuhan Institute of Virus Research posted “Professor Guangxiang Luo of the University of Alabama at Birmingham visited the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research” on January 27, 2016.
The article said that on May 20, 2015, Luo Guangxiang, a professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology at the invitation of the Ge Hong Senior Forum and gave an academic presentation on hepatitis C virus.
The University of Alabama denies any association with the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research. University officials said they “reviewed the records of any potentially relevant institutions to determine the basis for the reference” when the issue was brought to their attention earlier this year, but they found no connection, according to the university’s newspaper. They questioned the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research’s reference to the University of Alabama and asked that the reference be removed from the website, but have yet to receive a response.
The University of Alabama is not the only U.S. university under investigation by the federal Department of Education for links to Chinese officials.
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