China and Viruses: The Case of Dr. Xiangguo Qiu

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,429, January 29, 2020

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In July 2019, a rare event occurred in Canada. Suspected of espionage for China, a group of Chinese virologists was forcibly evicted from the Canadian National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg, where they had been running parts of the Special Pathogen Program of Canada’s public health agency. One of the procedures conducted by the team was the infection of monkeys with the most lethal viruses found on Earth. Four months prior to the Chinese team’s eviction, a shipment containing two exceptionally virulent viruses—Ebola and Nipah—was sent from the NML to China. When the shipment was traced, it was held to be improper and a “possible policy breach.”

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Of those facilities, four are believed to be involved in Chinese biological weapons development. They are:

• Institute of Military Veterinary, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Changchun
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Chengdu Military Region
• Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hubei
• Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing

All four facilities collaborated with Qiu on her Ebola research. 

READ MORE: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/china-biological-warfare/