China has been preparing for Third World War with biological weapons for last six years, US investigators say
- Beijing has considered the military potential of SARS coronaviruses since 2015
- Scientists examined manipulation of diseases ‘in a way never seen before’
- Foreign affairs committee’s Tom Tugendhat says evidence is a ‘major concern’
Chinese scientists have been preparing for a Third World War fought with biological and genetic weapons including coronavirus for the last six years, according to a document obtained by US investigators.
Evidence that Beijing considered the military potential of SARS coronaviruses from 2015 raised fresh fears over the cause of Covid-19.
The dossier by People’s Liberation Army scientists and health officials examined the manipulation of diseases to make weapons ‘in a way never seen before’.
China’s progress in the research field of biowarfare is heavily explored in the paper, in which it is noted that such an attack would result in a surge of patients requiring hospital treatment, which then ‘could cause the enemy’s medical system to collapse’.
Chinese scientists have been preparing for a Third World War fought with biological and genetic weapons including coronavirus for the last six years
MP Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, said: ‘This document raises major concerns about the ambitions of some of those who advise the top party leadership. Even under the tightest controls these weapons are dangerous.’
Chemical weapons expert Hamish de Bretton-Gordon said: ‘China has thwarted all attempts to regulate and police its laboratories where such experimentation may have taken place.’
The revelation from the book What Really Happened in Wuhan was reported yesterday in The Australian.
The document, New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons, says: ‘Following developments in other scientific fields, there have been major advances in the delivery of biological agents.
‘For example, the new-found ability to freeze-dry micro-organisms has made it possible to store biological agents and aerosolise them during attacks.’
It has 18 authors who were working at ‘high-risk’ labs, analysts say.
Intelligence agencies suspect Covid-19 may be the result of an inadvertent Wuhan lab leak. But as yet there is no evidence to suggest it was intentionally released.
The World Health Organization chief said as recently as March that all theories on the origins of Covid-19 remained open after reading the WHO-China study – despite the claim the report dismissed the notion that the virus escaped from a lab as ‘extremely unlikely’.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said all of the hypotheses are ‘on the table’ and require further investigation after reading the report from the international experts’ mission to Wuhan.
But his comments came just hours after it emerged the report dismissed the lab leak theory and said the transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario.