The P4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research.
While WHO experts were investigating the source of the outbreak in Wuhan, China, the Chinese authorities first removed the research results of virus expert Shi Zhengli and then awarded her the title of “Advanced Worker” by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The Chinese Communist Party‘s practice has drawn outside attention.
On January 15, CAS held its 2021 annual work conference in Beijing. At the meeting, Shi Zhengli, a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, CAS, was awarded the title of “Advanced Worker of the Chinese Academy of Sciences”.
The authorities praised Shi Zhengli for her successes. For example, after the SARS (also known as SARS virus) outbreak in 2003, she turned to research on the pathogenesis of emerging viruses and made “a series of important scientific discoveries in the discovery and identification of important viruses carried by bats and the mechanism of cross-species infection of emerging viruses.
On January 14, the day before Shi was awarded the “Advanced Worker of the Chinese Academy of Sciences”, a team of 13 experts from the WHO arrived in Wuhan, China, to conduct a traceability investigation of the Wuhan pneumonia (CCP and Neoplastic virus) outbreak after 14 days of quarantine.
However, just before the WHO expert team departed, a reporter from the UK’s Mail on Sunday discovered that more than 300 relevant studies done by the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research had been removed from the website of the National Natural Science Foundation of the Communist Party of China.
Shi Zhengli and her team, long engaged in coronavirus research since the SARS outbreak in 2003, collected bat guano and other samples from an abandoned mine in Yunnan, brought them back to Wuhan for research, and finally found that SARS disease may have been transmitted to humans by a bat in that cave.
After the Wuhan virus outbreak in late 2019, there were suspicions that the virus may have been caused by a leak from the Wuhan virus.
After the WHO expert team arrived in China to begin investigating the origin of the virus, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement on Jan. 15, re-emphasizing a transparent and thorough investigation into the origin of the virus in China.
Pompeo also urged the WHO to pressure the Chinese Communist government to address three major questions.
One, several researchers at the Wuhan Virus Institute developed symptoms similar to the CCP virus in the fall of 2019. Two, the Wuhan Virus Institute has been studying the “RaTG13” bat coronavirus since at least 2016, and the closest sample to the current SARS-CoV-2 (CCP virus) has 96.2% similarity. Third, the virus institute is engaged in confidential research with the Chinese Communist military.
Dr. Xiaoxu Lin, a former virology researcher at the U.S. Army Research Institute, told the Epoch Times that Shi Zhengli is the most well-known scientist in China studying the spread of coronavirus bats and coronaviruses. In foreign countries, it is difficult to get support for research like hers, but in China it is more permissible to violate this kind of research against the ethical bottom line, so she is also responsible for the outside world’s accusations that the Chinese Communist virus may have been leaked from that lab.
Dr. Lin Xiaoxu said that Shi Zhengli wanted to “clear her name,” so when she was questioned by Science magazine last year about the origin and spread of the virus, she dragged her feet for two months, and only reported her content to Science magazine after the Ministry of Propaganda approved her caliber and it was officially accepted.
Shi Zhengli told the BBC late last year that she personally welcomed “any kind of visit by WHO experts, based on openness, transparency, trust, reliability and reasonable dialogue. But it should not be up to me to decide on a specific program. Subsequently, the Wuhan Institute of Virus said Shi Zhengli’s words did not represent the institute.
Dr. Lin Xiaoxu said that the Wuhan Institute of Virus, which is part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is basically politically oriented, so as a researcher below, it is definitely up to the leaders above to say what they can and cannot say. The Wuhan Institute of Virus and these leading figures are not the same caliber, different ideas, this will bring problems.
Lin Xiaoxu said that now the Chinese Communist authorities are branding her as a hero for fighting the Epidemic, and for the Chinese Communist Party officials, it is trying to downplay the possibility that the virus may have been leaked out of Wuhan, and thus hold the Chinese Communist Party responsible for causing the global outbreak.
“So it (the Chinese Communist Party) also wants to restore the reputation of the Wuhan Virus Institute, and it certainly has that intention for the officials, which is why Shi Zhengli is being brought back up.” Lin Xiaoxu said.
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