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Military: PLA Biological and Chemical Protection Soldiers Died in Wuhan

Gu Zhuheng, the owner of Sing Pao Daily News, one of the oldest Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong, tweeted on February 23, that soldiers from the Guangdong Army Biological and Chemical Protection Regiment that was recently sent to Wuhan had died three weeks ago. He also posted a picture of himself in military uniform and his ID when he worked with that regiment. Gu was exiled to the U.S. in 2017 after Beijing wanted to arrest him for a financial matter.

Qi Leyi, a host of a military program for Radio Free Asia, talked about the Biological and Chemical Protection troops in the PLA. She said that each army has such a unit at the regiment or battalion level. They participated in the rescue mission during the 2003 SARS outbreak in China.

She also pointed out that three things were needed to develop lethal biological weapon and China had all of them. One was the relevant technology, facility, and raw materials. Two was a laboratory of the highest safety level. Three was access to the original virus. Qiu Xiangguo and Cheng Keding, the couple and expert virologists in Canada had been visiting the Wuhan P4 lab multiple times. Canadian police arrested them for taking virus samples to China from the Canadian P4 lab that they worked at.

Military: Wuhan Lab Has Close Ties to the PLA

Radio France International reported that Major General Chen Wei, China’s chief biochemical weapon defense expert, took over the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, China’s first Biocontainment Level 4 (BL4) lab (Chinese call it a P4 lab) in Wuhan, after the coronavirus outbreak. A news report on February 7 mentioned that she had been in Wuhan for over ten days, so she probably took over the P4 lab around the same time as Wuhan locked down the city (on January 23, 2020).

Radio France International also reported that China requested France to help it build this lab in 2003. Despite the warning from its Intelligence offices that China could use it to develop biochemical weapons, France still signed the agreement with China on 2004. The agreement stated that Beijing should not apply the technology to activities of an attacking nature.

In 2005, China designated a local company IPPR in Wuhan to manage the project. That company had close ties with some units affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA); the CIA had been monitoring those units.

It is unclear whether Beijing has honored its promise not to develop biochemical weapons at the lab. A government official in France told news reporters that China has broken its promises several times in the past. For example, China promised to build only one lab, but now it has built several and some labs look suspicious.

The Paper: Bloomberg’s First Debate Performance a Major Disappointment

Well-known new Chinese news site The Paper recently reported that the U.S. Democratic Party had its ninth TV presidential debate in Las Vegas on February 19. The much-hyped former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg made his first debate appearance. However, his performance was a major blow to those who had high hopes for him. The current Democratic presidential field is quite chaotic, though Senator Bernie Sanders has shown some lead. With this background, many saw Bloomberg as someone who could unite the party. However, the other five candidates attacked him heavily while he showed no capability of handling the situation successfully. It was widely expected that Bloomberg would face serious attacks on his wealth as well as previous his record during his time when he served as the New York mayor, such as his Stop and Frisk policy. Bloomberg could not address the issues confidently even with weeks of prior preparations, while Sanders demonstrated strong personality and aggressiveness. U.S. news site Politico described Bloomberg’s performance as a disaster. The Washington Post pointed out that, after seeing the debate, many voters gave up believing that Bloomberg would be the one who could actually challenge Trump. Bloomberg’s lack of charisma may have a big negative impact on his Super Tuesday performance in less than two weeks. Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden did not have a good performance in the same debate either.

Source: The Paper, February 21, 2020
https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_6058362

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