“China & Pakistan enter ‘secret deal’ to expand bio-warfare tools,” says an Australian investigative journalist

China and Pakistan may have allegedly entered a “secret three-year deal” to expand potential bio-warfare capabilities, including running several research projects related to the deadly agent anthrax, according to an Australia based investigative journalist Anthony Klan.

“China’s now infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology has signed the covert deal with Pakistan military’s Defense Science and Technology Organization (DESTO), to collaborate research in “emerging infectious diseases” and advance studies on the biological control of transmitted diseases,” Klan alleged in his recent article titled “China’s Wuhan lab operating “covert operations” in Pakistan, creating “anthrax-like” pathogens

Quoting sources, Klan alleged that the program is being entirely funded by China and is formally titled the “Collaboration for Emerging Infectious Diseases and Studies on Biological Control of Vector Transmitting Diseases”.

“China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology had “lent all financial, material and scientific support for the project,” Klan wrote quoting sources.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been in news in recent months because the Coronavirus is believed to have originated in Wuhan.

“The covert China-Pakistan project has conducted “successful soil sampling tests” to isolate Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT), which has a “striking similarity” to Bacillus Anthracis – or anthrax. Considering the striking similarity between BT and Bacillus Anthracis, a classified bio-warfare agent, (Pakistan’s) improved know-how in handling the bacteria could enrich a potential offensive biological program,” Klan wrote quoting sources.

The Wuhan lab was providing “extensive training on manipulation of pathogens and bio-informatics” to Pakistani scientists “to help Pakistan develop its own virus collection database”, he alleged.

“China’s keen interest in the project is driven chiefly by its agenda to engage Pakistan against India and to conduct potentially dangerous experiments on foreign soil, without subjecting its own land and people to risk,” Klan wrote quoting an expert.

The China-Pakistan biological project had already undertaken experiments on the Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus (CCHFV). CCHFV is a rapid-onset fever virus that causes death in about 25% of cases and is similar to the Ebola virus, the scribe wrote.

“While theories of Coronavirus emerging from the Wuhan Institute of Virology have been largely dismissed by experts, serious concerns have been raised about the safety standards at the Wuhan lab more generally. In particular, there are concerns the lab is not equipped to handle class-4 diseases, despite claiming to be class-4 compliant.

There were concerns that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had also established the Institute of Medical Biology in Kunming, in China’s southern Yunnan province, Klan wrote quoting sources.

Source:- ET