A new virus synthesized by Mojiang virus leaked from the laboratory

Britain’s Sunday Times reported that after obtaining and reviewing hundreds of documents, as well as investigators who visited the US State Department, the clearest picture of events surrounding the coronavirus outbreak has emerged. After the discovery of the Mojiang virus in 2016, it was sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where scientists in Wuhan cooperated with internal experts of the People’s Liberation Army pursuing biological weapons years ago to create a new virus mutant, and later the virus leaked from the laboratory.

The Times said the hundreds of documents reviewed include previously classified reports, internal memos, scientific reports, email communications, and interviews with people including State Department investigators, experts on China, emerging pandemics, biological weapons and others.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology was originally seeking the source of the 2003 SARS (Severe Acute respiratory syndrome) virus, attracted funding from the U.S. government through a New York charity, and top U.S. coronavirus scientists shared advanced virus manipulation techniques, The Times said.

But in 2016, researchers discovered a novel coronavirus in a mine in Mojiang, Yunnan Province, the only known relative of the virus. The Mojiang virus was then sent to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

An American investigator said: “The reporting files are becoming opaque. The classified program begins right now.”

Us: China wants to make biological weapons

U.S. investigators believe the People’s Liberation Army and the lab secretly collaborated on a dangerous experimental project to make the virus more contagious before an apparent leak led to its spread into Wuhan, The Times said.

Investigators say they believe the program led to the creation of the COVID-19 virus. They highlighted evidence that researchers had been admitted to hospitals with COVID-like symptoms as early as November 2019.

State Department investigators wrote in the report: “Although the Wuhan Institute of Virology claims to be a civilian organization, the United States believes that the institute has collaborated with the Chinese military to publish and conduct secret programs.” The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been involved in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017.”

The Times also pointed out in the report that Zhou Yusen, a vaccine expert of the People’s Liberation Army, was suspected because he applied for a novel coronavirus vaccine patent in February 2020, and he had worked with Wuhan scientists on the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) coronavirus, and was also working with Wuhan scientists at the moment of the epidemic, which was more than a month after China announced the outbreak. Zhou Yusen is suspected to have died in May 2020 at the age of 54.

China: The US is politicizing the coronavirus pandemic

As the rivalry between the two superpowers intensifies, the spat between the two countries over the origin of the virus has become as influential politically as scientifically.

She also referred again to the laboratory leak theory, calling on the United States to “stop smearing China.”