In a must-read article in the December 2020 issue of Indian Defense Review, Dr. Sharad S Chauhan defines “Opportunistic Bioterrorism” as:

“Concealment of the emergence of a biological agent, pathogen or a disease by acts of commission or omission with the knowledge that such an act will harm or kill humans’ animals or plants with the intent to intimidate or coerce a government or civilian population to further political or social objectives or by using a situation to get power or an advantage.”

That “opportunity” was COVID-19, a product of policies and actions undertaken by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

First and foremost, it is critical for everyone to understand that, in the People’s Republic of China, there is no difference between military and civilian research centers.

Chapter 78 of the CCP’s Thirteenth Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) describes the fusion of military and civilian research including the area of “synthetic biology.”

Even prior to the publication of that plan, it had been common practice for the CCP to change the name of military research centers to something more civilian-sounding and for Chinese scientists to disguise their military connections.

A second component of the CCP’s military-civilian fusion effort is the integration of Chinese scientists working abroad as part of the network, even to the extent that Chinese scientists have become U.S. citizens, but remain active members of the CCP’s program.

In that way, foreign institutions and foreign funding sources become de facto partners in the CCP’s research program and contributors to China’s military and economic might.

The most glaring, but far from the only example of such American “useful idiot” participants in the CCP military-civilian research program, is Dr. Anthony Fauci, whose National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) funded coronavirus research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology via long-time CCP research collaborator Peter Daszak, who is head of the EcoHealth Alliance.

The CCP integration of military-civilian virus research is led by the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, where Dr. Wei Chen, a Major General in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the virologist, is Director of the Institute of Bioengineering and presumed to be the head of China’s biological warfare program.

In January 2020, the CCP dispatched Major General Wei Chen to Wuhan to take charge of the response to the growing pandemic. She was also responsible for China’s COVID-19 vaccine development.

It is also Major General Wei Chen’s own experience and research connections that provide the background for the origin of COVID-19.

The following is just a snapshot of a more widespread and deeper internal and international network representing the fusion of China’s military-civilian research program.

In 2004 and 2005, Major General Wei Chen was working in the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, where she studied the spike protein of the first SARS coronavirus using a genetic technology called RNA interference to silence gene expression of the virus, as well as analyzing immune therapy in SARS patients.

According to her publication record, between 2008 and 2013, Major General Wei Chen conducted experiments on dengue fever virus in the Department of Microbiology, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing.

It is important to note that Chinese whistleblower Dr. Li-Meng Yan claims that the backbone of the COVID-19 virus, bat coronaviruses ZC45 and/or ZXC21, was characterized and genetically engineered under the supervision of the Third Military Medical University in Chongqing.

Around 2014, Major General Wei Chen returned to the Academy of Military Medical Sciences as Director of the Institute of Bioengineering, where she supervised human testing in Africa of a genetically engineered viral vector Ebola vaccine.

Dr. Yusen Zhou was one of the Chinese military scientists, who collaborated with Major General Wei Chen in the response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

He received his training as a military medical doctor and also studied the spike protein of the first SARS coronavirus in 2004, while working in the same research center as Major General Wei, the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Academy of Military Medical Sciences.

Yusen Zhou’s co-author on that 2004 scientific article “Identification of Immunodominant Sites on the Spike Protein of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Coronavirus: Implication for Developing SARS Diagnostics and Vaccines” was Dr. Shibo Jiang.

Also a graduate of a military medical university, Shibo Jiang worked at the Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute of the New York Blood Center for nearly twenty years and received more than $17 million in U.S. research grants, the vast majority coming from Fauci’s NIAID.

During that period, Shibo Jiang developed an extensive network of collaborative research with other U.S. virus research laboratories and became the nexus connecting China’s military-civilian research program with those in the United States.

At the same time, Shibo Jiang maintained research activities with Yusen Zhou and several PLA laboratories, described in detail here, while simultaneously inviting other Chinese scientists into his U.S. laboratory.

One was Dr. Lanying Du, allegedly Yusen Zhou’s wife, who is still an employee of the Lindsley F. Kimball Research Institute in New York and recently received a 5-year grant totally $4.1 million from Fauci’s NIAID.

Shibo Jiang’s U.S. network consisted of laboratories conducting cutting edge coronavirus research, including the controversial “gain of function” experiments:

Dr. Ralph Baric, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC

Dr. Fang Li, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN

Linfa Wang, director of the Program in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Duke University-NUS Medical School, Singapore

Chien-Te K. Tseng, University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, home of the Department of Defense-funded Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases and the high viral BL-4 containment facility.

All of the above are linked to the CCP’s military-civilian research program via Yusen Zhou or the “bat woman”, Dr. Zheng-Li Shi of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

Another CCP scientist linked to both the Chinese military and the highest levels of U.S. research programs is Dr. Gao Fu, also known as George F. Gao, a virologist and immunologist, who has served as Director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC).

In 2019, he was elected a foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Science and the U.S. National Academy of Medicine.

Gao Fu is a long-time research partner of China’s military with whom he published in 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008a, 2008b, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014a, 2014b, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Gao Fu’s colleague at the CCDC, Dr. Wenjie Tan, is not only linked to Shibo Jinag and Yusen Zhou, but is a close collaborator of Dr. Zhenhong Hu from the General Hospital of Central Theater Command of the PLA in Wuhan.

Zhenhong Hu conducted research with the Third Military Medical University from where the bat backbone of the COVID-19 virus is alleged to have originated.

The Third Military Medical University was also Major General Wei Chen’s place of employment for five years.

It is perhaps no coincidence that, according to patient data, the epicenter of the outbreak during its earliest phase was the General Hospital of Central Theater Command of the PLA (map coordinates 30.53148, 114.34356).

That location is less than one mile from the P-3 level laboratory of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Hubei Engineering and Technology Research Center for Viral Diseases (map coordinates 30.53941, 114.35085).

That information also matches data published by the Wuhan Wuchang District Health Bureau stating that the highest concentration of infections in the early phase of the outbreak occurred in the residential areas about one mile from the hospital.

Those observations fit, in time and location, the social media data obtained from the Sina Weibo platform, which was designed as a channel for suspected COVID-19 patients to seek help.

It is interesting to note that during May 2020, the U.S. National Academy of Science initiated a series of conference calls between Chinese and U.S. scientists to exchange information about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The three Chinese participants on those calls were Gao Fu, Wenjie Tan and the “bat woman” Zheng-Li Shi of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The calls could also be described as de facto briefings for China’s military.

There is still much we do not know about the origin of COVID-19, largely due to a cover-up operation led by the CCP and facilitated by members of the Western scientific community, some U.S. government officials and a compliant media. One could argue that they are all co-conspirators in “Opportunistic Bioterrorism.”

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Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is retired from an international career in business and medical research with 29 years of service in the US Army Reserve and a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq. He is a member of the Citizens Commission on National Security. His email address is [email protected].