The American Department of Energy recently reported that the COVID-19 event likely began with a leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV.).The circumstantial evidence, as Marco Navarro-Génie and I documented in Canada’s COVID, had been public since the summer of 2020. In Canada the House of Commons convened a special committee looking into Chinese interference in recent elections, which is also old news. Additional unfinished business between Canada and China involves the connection of the WIV to the National Microbiology Lab (NML) in Winnipeg. Let’s take a look..In July 2019 two scientists, Qiu Xiangguo and her husband, Kednig Cheng, were “escorted” from the NML by the RCMP. The NML, like the Wuhan lab is rated as a level four biosafety facility and is capable of handling and containing the most dangerous pathogens around. It is administered by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC.).When the scientists were removed, along with several of their doctoral and post-doc students, their security clearances were also revoked. The students, also from China, had been studying at the University of Manitoba, where Qiu and Cheng were adjunct (unpaid) professors. The students had access to the lab, but it is unclear whether they had security clearance. According to CSIS spokesperson Keira Lawson, the decision to give the students the run of the place was made by PHAC..When, in January 2021, Qiu and Cheng were fired, Eric Morrissette, PHAC chief of media relations, refused to say anything more “for reasons of confidentiality” which means, we won’t say any more because we won’t say any more..The RCMP began their investigation in late May 2019 when PHAC asked them to investigate a “policy breach,” whatever that is. Over the next several months several oddities came to light suggesting a narrative that in turn, raised many important and as yet unanswered questions..In March 2019 Qiu shipped Ebola and Henipah, both extremely dangerous hemorrhagic viruses, to the WIV. Amir Attaran, a law professor and epidemiologist at the University of Ottawa remarked, “She sent one of the deadliest viruses on Earth and multiple varieties of it, to maximize the genetic diversity and maximize what experimenters in China could do with it, to a laboratory in China that does dangerous gain-of-function experiments. And that has links to the Chinese military.”.Wuhan was not the only link to the Peoples’ Liberation Army. At least one of Qiu’s students was a member of the PLA Academy of Military Sciences. Moreover, Major-General Chen Wei, praised by Xi Jinping in September 2020 for developing a Chinese COVID vaxx, conducted joint research with her on Ebola. They published a couple of papers together where Maj.Gen Chen underwent a clever name reversal and used the name Wei Chen, not Chen Wei. When asked by the Globe and Mail whether it was standard procedure for NML scientists to conduct and publish joint research with general officers in the PLA, Anne Génier, PHAC spokesperson, said that, “while the NML does not have institutional agreements with the Chinese military, Canada’s scientists have collaborated with Chinese scientists to contribute to the global public health fight against deadly diseases such as Ebola.” Her response expressed the adherence of PHAC to the notion, as another spokesman, Mark Johnson, put it, of “open science and collaboration.”.The important question, however, is whether Maj.Gen Chen saw himself as a PLA officer or as an “open” scientist?.Here we must recall that the PLA is the military arm of the Chinese Communist Party. Its relationship to the Peoples’ Republic of China is not at all akin to the relationship of the Canadian Armed Forces to Canada. Rather, it would be as if the CF were loyal not to the Crown but to a political party. Accordingly, research efforts by PLA officers are not politically disinterested scientific investigations but are intended to support the military mission of the PLA, namely state and party security. When asked if Maj.Gen Chen had visited the lab, spokesperson Johnson wouldn’t say because of “privacy concerns.”.Some additional anomalies: Qiu took several trips to China in 2017-19 that were “third-party funded” and so of no cost to PHAC. Whoever funded the trips was redacted from the documents obtained by a CBC access-to-information request. So were the names of her Beijing “collaborators.” Staff in the Winnipeg lab told CBC that the RCMP had not yet interviewed key personnel because PHAC refused to let them talk. When asked about this non-cooperation PHAC spokespersons referred CBC to the RCMP. The Mounties said they encouraged people to talk with them and, “to maintain the integrity of the investigative process,” would say nothing further..The RCMP investigation is “ongoing,” which means that Qiu and Cheng may never be charged because, once charged, they would be put on trial, which means disclosing evidence. By nature (and apart from political embarrassment) security agencies are always reluctant to disclose evidence..Another oddity: when Qiu transferred the Ebola and Henipah viruses to Wuhan, she did not sign a Materials Transfer Agreement. This meant that Canada could not claim any intellectual property rights regarding the shipment. Under the Public Servants Inventions Act, the Crown owns all inventions resulting from the activities of public servants..Qiu had been honoured with a Governor General’s innovation award in 2018 for her work on developing an Ebola virus. There was initial concern at PHAC that Qiu may have violated the Act both before and after her award because her name appeared in 2017 and 2019 on Chinese patents. Qiu told Maclean’s that this was done without her knowledge or permission..If true, that would mean that the China National Intellectual Property Administration decided for some unknown reason (kindness perhaps?) to grant Qiu patent rights and certainly not because of anything she may have sent them from Winnipeg..Not to be outdone in the obfuscation department, when asked if PHAC knew about Qiu’s patents, spokesperson Johnson said, “We cannot comment on this matter.”.A final anomaly: The combined Canadian salary of Qiu and Cheng was around $250k. They lived in a $1.7M house and owned a rental property worth over half a million dollars as well as property in “cottage country” around Gimli and residential property in China. In June 2021, the Globe reported the couple had disappeared five or six months earlier. The RCMP would not say if they knew their whereabouts..Some of these issues arose during the investigation by a Parliamentary committee in 2021. The committee asked for documents from PHAC and received redacted and useless paper. The health minister, Patti Hajdu, explained it all had to do with privacy and national security. Iain Stewart, the PHAC boss was then “admonished” before the bar of the House of Commons (the first such censure since 1891) but still refused to hand over the requested documents. The interim Clerk of the Privy Council, Janice Charette, praised his defiance of Parliament as “an example to all.” Bureaucratic solidarity survived intact when the work of the committee was suspended owing to the September 2021 general election..Today, it seems unlikely that Trudeau will call an election to protect deep state bureaucrats. This situation provides an opportunity for the current House committee to resume analysis of Chinese scientific activity — activity that looks at least as damaging as election interference..Barry Cooper is a professor at the University of Calgary
