Sunday, May 30, 2021

Key truths about WIV from ex-Wuhan lab worker's testimony in China, B.1.617.2 claims baby victim

News (1) to (11) / Key truths by : Zhao Fei (quit Wuhan Institute of Viology in 2018) / http://news.sciencenet.cn/htmlnews/2020/5/439820.shtm / Extract translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA / Image courtesy : Daily Mail Web Screenshot


News (1)

Shi Zhengli did not directly participate in the construction of the recombinant virus, claims ex-Wuhan lab worker

With the current level of science and technology, researchers do have the ability to transform the coronavirus to a certain extent. For example, like the 2015 Nature Medicine article that attracted everyone’s attention not long ago (Nat Med. 2015;21:1508-13. There have been many articles explaining this work), this work was completed by American scientists in the United States and constructed a recombinant virus.

Shi Zhengli’s role in this is mainly to provide the bat coronavirus responsible for identifying the S protein sequence information entering the host cell, and at the cellular level confirmed that the bat coronavirus S protein can recognize the cell receptor ACE2, but did not directly participate in the construction of the recombinant virus and infection characteristics analysis, did not participate in virus recombination work.

In addition, the work of the 2015 article was to replace the original S protein with a known S protein, and the current S protein of SARS-CoV-2 (covi, short for COVID-19 virus, novel coronavirus, CCP virus)  is different from all existing known virus S proteins. So, if you want to artificially synthesize a new S protein and let it meet the following conditions, (i) it can bind to the human ACE2 receptor, (ii) its binding capacity is 10-20 times that of the SARS virus S protein (https://www .biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.11.944462v1), and (iii) has a complete biological function to ensure the normal replication of the virus, the workload will be astronomical.

Even with the aid of modern biological technology such as bioinformatics analysis and protein structure prediction, a large amount of experimental work is required for screening and verification, and the manpower, expenditure and time consumed are still unimaginable. Therefore, it is difficult to artificially create SARS-CoV-2 with the existing technological capabilities. 

News (2)

CCP does not allow further study on SARS-CoV, claims ex-Wuhan lab worker

Since SARS was accidentally leaked from a laboratory in 2004, China has neither established nor approved the study of SARS-CoV. Therefore, the Wuhan Institute of Virology has no longer engaged in SARS-CoV research.

News (3)

Most bat coronaviruses do not have live virus

It is now found that BatCoV RaTG13 (RaTG13, in short) from bats has the highest similarity with SARS-CoV-2, which means that no virus like covi has been found yet.

(i) The vast majority of bat coronaviruses have only sequences and no viral entities. In order to avoid harm to bats, the general sampling is to collect feces (possibly saliva, urine, blood, etc.), and then obtain the sequence information of all viruses through metagenomic sequencing technology, and discover possible virus types from it. RaTG13 was also found to be more similar to SARS-CoV-2 through sequence comparison, and then retested the original sample to obtain the full-length sequence.

(ii) Before covi, only six viruses that can infect humans were discovered. If the seventh type of coronavirus that can infect humans has been discovered long ago, scientists will have published articles as soon as possible if this should be a major discovery, and  not secretly hide and wait for leakage. 

News (4)

Animal tests at P2, P3 and P4 of WIV,  the possibility of leakage through experimental animals is extremely low, says ex-Wuhan lab worker 

The use and management of laboratory animals are strictly regulated.

As far as I know, the experimental animal test sites of Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) are divided into three levels P2, P3 and P4. I only understand the management of some P2 laboratories. P3 and P4 belong to high-level laboratory animal laboratories, and I have no qualification to use them; but they must have higher protection specifications and stricter management than P2 animal laboratories.

As far as P2 is concerned, where each experimental animal came from, what experiments were conducted, how long the experiment lasted, how the experiment was terminated, and how the animals were handled after the experiment are all strictly registered. This means that any experimental animal cannot be missed and animal corpses must be recorded. The final animal carcasses are all collected uniformly, and recycled as medical hazardous waste on a regular basis. A qualified professional treatment company is responsible for recycling the carcasses.

Moreover, the experimental animal centre has a dedicated person responsible for the management and monitoring of the animals. There is no dead end monitoring in the experimental space for 24 hours, and the experimental personnel cannot treat the animals as they want. Research on SARS-CoV-2 needs to be carried out in at least a P3 laboratory, and the corresponding animal experiment management is more stringent.

News (5)

The primate experiment is a critical task in the scientific research on SARS-CoV-2 only after the covid outbreak

(I) From the perspective of management. First of all, there are strict management regulations for the approval of animal experiments and the use of P4 laboratories. All work needs to comply with bioethics and laboratory animal welfare ethics. When small animals (such as mice, etc.) can be used, large animals are not allowed. Experiments with primates must be done with caution. If the experiment is approved, all work needs to be carried out under the supervision and management of the animal center, which is by no means arbitrary.

For the P4 laboratory, the animal experiments are not even carried out by the scientific researchers who carry out the project, but after submitting the experimental plan, they entrust trained and qualified P4 experimenters to operate on their behalf.

The final animal handling is believed to be more stringent than the mouse handling in the P2 laboratory. After all, the P4 laboratory is a place to study the most deadly pathogens. From the perspectives of biosafety, environmental safety, and laboratory personnel safety, there is no room for slippage.

(Ii) From the perspective of funding. The cost of primate experimentation is quite high. Not to mention the cost of the later experiment process, the cost of buying a rhesus monkey alone is about 20,000 RMB.

Wuhan Institute of Virology only has primate experiment space in the P4 laboratory (neither P2 nor P3). The cost of maintaining and working in the P4 laboratory is very high. So if there is no special need, there is absolutely no need to conduct primate experiments.

Therefore, primate experiments are often the last step of a topic, that is, when the cellular level and small animal experiments have been completed, and the results are good, primate experiments may be considered.

The P4 laboratory did not carry out primate infection experiments before the epidemic. After the outbreak, the Wuhan Institute of Virology conducted some primate experiments in the P4 laboratory in order to conduct scientific research.

At present, the specific experimental content and number of animals in primate experiments are unknown but according to the conventional process, it may involve (not necessarily all include) understanding of the pathogenic mechanism of the virus, development of treatment plans, testing of drugs, and development of testing vaccines. (Note: The above data content was written on 21 February 2020)

On 12 April 2020, according to media reports, Wuhan Institute of Virology and Wuhan Institute of Biological Products have jointly developed the world’s first inactivated vaccine for SARS-CoV-2. Before clinical testing, it must undergo a series of strict tests. It is believed that the primate infection model has made great contributions to the toxicity testing and effectiveness verification of these tests.

News (6)

For any laboratory that studies viruses, it is normal to carry out some modifications to the virus

For example, in order to study the process of viruses invading cells, replicating, and spreading, the surface of the virus is marked with quantum dots that can emit bright fluorescence, fluorescent protein genes are added to the virus genome, and the protein on the virus surface is fused with the fluorescent protein to knock out the virus in the virus. Virulence genes are used in vaccine development and so on.

However, all experimental designs are based on the perspective of safety, which is why there are various laboratories with different biosafety levels, and experimenters need to choose the appropriate safety level according to the corresponding research objects and work content.

In the case of HIV, which causes AIDS, according to the "List of Pathogenic Microorganisms Infected by Humans" issued by the Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China in 2006, HIV belongs to the second category of pathogens (same as SARS), virus culture (that is, amplified virus) and animal infections. Experiments (using live viruses) need to be carried out in the BSL-3 or P3 laboratory (animal experiments are in ABSL-3).

News (7)

Detection of clinical samples of SARS-CoV-2 inactivated and carried out at P2, not P4

The operation of uncultured infectious materials (can be understood as a very small amount of virus) and the operation of inactivated materials (for example, the detection of clinical samples of SARS-CoV-2 needs to be inactivated first) is carried out in the BSL-2 laboratory (P2), while the operation on un-infectious materials (for example, for separate viral nucleic acid or protein, etc.) is carried out at BSL-1 (P1).

News (8)

Virus modification is normal and is by no means a trifle, says ex-WIV P2 lab worker

So if the virus is modified, will it be terrible? The answer is also no.

The vast majority of virus transformations are for scientific research and are based on the basic premise of safety. Let's take HIV as an example. One feature of HIV is that it can integrate its genome into human chromosomes (this is one of the reasons why it is difficult to cure HIV).

Using this feature, scientists have transformed HIV into a carrier for gene delivery, just like trucking goods, transferring the target genes it carries to other cells. For decades, HIV vectors (generally called lentiviral vectors) have undergone rounds of development, from the first generation to the fourth generation. The most important change is the gradual improvement in safety.

At present, lentiviral vectors are used in most cell biology or molecular biology laboratories in the world.

By the way, traditional HIV can only recognize one receptor called CD4, that is, it can only infect a type of cell containing CD4 (CD4+T cells); in order to allow it to recognize more types of cells, scientists deliberately identify The HIV surface protein of CD4 has been replaced with a similar protein (VSV-G) of another virus (water mouth virus, VSV), which allows the lentiviral vector to infect many different cells, expanding its application range. Therefore, some modification of the virus is not all bad, and it does not necessarily cause serious consequences. (Note: The above data content was written on 21 February 2020)

Before the WIV and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products jointly developed the world's first inactivated vaccine for the new coronavirus, the team of Academician Chen Wei of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences had taken the lead in developing a recombinant vaccine for the novel coronavirus. This vaccine is actually based on virus modification.

The vaccine of Academician Chen Wei’s team was obtained by modifying adenovirus (a common virus that can cause acute upper respiratory tract infections, eye and gastrointestinal infections; it can also cause infant pneumonia, with severe illness and high immortality).

Simply put, after the key replication-related genes in the adenovirus genome are removed by genetic modification, the obtained recombinant adenovirus that cannot replicate independently is used as the backbone to express the surface protein of SARS-CoV-2 (or other viruses such as Ebola virus) and a recombinant novel coronavirus vaccine based on adenovirus is obtained.

Therefore, virus modification is a very common technical method, and there is no need to panic.

Although virus modification is a routine technique and a routine operation, modification of viruses (especially highly pathogenic viruses that need to be studied in high-level biosafety laboratories) is not a work that can be carried out casually.

Any modification work related to highly pathogenic viruses must be reviewed by the professional "Biosafety Committee" and "Ethics Committee" before the project is launched. Only in compliance with international and domestic biosafety and bioethics, the review can be carried out after passing the review. These processes have strict rules and regulations, and there are strict application and review procedures, which is by no means a trifle.

News (9)

Covid and SARS are related

Sequencing results and sequence comparison show that COVID-19 virus and SARS virus have a certain relationship. But science is rigorous, and the similarity of virus sequences alone is not enough to predict a serious epidemic as definite evidence. If this news is rashly published in the media, it may cause serious social problems.

News (10)

WIV and other pathogen labs in China ignore important social responsibilities 

The WIV, including other units engaged in pathogen research across the country, has ignored or neglected another important social responsibility that professional pathogen research institutions should fulfil during their arduous scientific research: in the early stage of the epidemic, they did not inform the public what they were doing as soon as possible. There must have been high-quality publicity, science popularization of virus characteristics, introduction of preventive measures. During the development of the epidemic, the public were not introduced in time what the virus institute experts are doing on the virus research, what progress has been made in their work, and what work needs to be further completed. WIV should step up in time to clarify and refute the rumours as experts and move on.

In addition to concentrating on scientific research and publishing papers, an important social responsibility of scientific and technological workers and scientific research units is to promote Science to the public and introduce their work and results in a language that ordinary people can understand.

Although the research team of the WIV work 10 to 20 hours a day, they do not have time to take care of public propaganda and education, but other researchers who have not participated in scientific research can use their professional knowledge to answer questions for the public. During the epidemic, most relevant scientific research institutions can only score negative points on this "social responsibility" (in fact, this is a long-standing problem for most domestic scientific research institutions).

In addition, the current pandemic also reflects the lack of a professional news team to carry out positive publicity. 

News (11)

How to treat the various drugs screened out by WIV?

According to the information displayed on the official website of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the institute collects COVID-19 virus samples from Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital on 30 December 2019. On 2 January 2020, the entire genome sequence of the COVID-19 virus is determined. On 5 January 2020, the virus strain is successfully isolated and included in the National Virus Resource Bank (managed by WIV) on 9 January and standardized preservation follows. On 11 January 2020, it was reported to the World Health Organization as one of the designated agencies of the National Health Commission. The organization submitted information on the genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2.

From the above time points, it can be seen that related research work began in the early stage of the epidemic where COVID-19 (covid) first broke out (note that the epidemic rose early, not before the epidemic began).

According to an interview by Guan Wuxiang, deputy director of the WIV, the WIV urgently condensed 12 research directions, including a drug screening team composed of 17 scientific researchers.

This team jointly carried out the screening and evaluation of listed drugs, clinical drugs and drug candidates with the National Emergency Prevention and Control Drug Engineering Research Center of the Academy of Military Medicine of the Academy of Military Sciences, and found that chloroquine phosphate, favipiravir, etc. are at the in vitro cellular level. It can effectively inhibit the infection of novel coronavirus pneumonia (covid), and other drugs are being screened and evaluated.”

Some of the results have been published through various media or through professional scientific journals. The media announced drug screening and scientific research progress and other information mainly concentrated in the early stage of the epidemic, but because some of the information caused some public opinion reversals, the results in the middle and late stages were mainly published through scientific and technological journals.

After WIV isolates covi, it should immediately begin to establish an infected cell model. The establishment of cell models should use several cell lines commonly used in virology laboratories to use viral infections to simulate in vivo infection.

After that, researchers began to use the cell model of virus infection to adopt a wide-spreading method of screening (this is also a conventional screening method), and a large number of drugs or drug libraries that have been clinically approved or not approved. WIV has multiple drug libraries.

If a certain drug can effectively inhibit virus replication in this cell infection model, then it is possible (note that it is only possible, not 100% sure) that it also has an antiviral effect in the body.

Many laboratories of WIV are screening drugs for different viruses (such as HIV, influenza, hepatitis virus, etc.). So they have a variety of different small molecule drugs or compound drug libraries (generally refer to the original drug, not the finished drug) .

These drug libraries have some approved drugs, as well as unapproved compounds and small molecules. The work of researchers is to use a high-throughput cell screening platform to obtain a few effective drugs with high efficiency and low toxicity from a large number of drug libraries.

On 28 January 2020, it was announced that three drugs that can inhibit viral replication at the cellular level have been identified, including the popular Redecive (code-named GS-5734) and two other drugs, chloroquine (Chloroquine, Sigma-C6628). After collaborating with Ritonavir, they have successively identified other drugs that can effectively inhibit viral replication in vitro, and published research results in professional scientific journals.

News (12) to (13) / Report by : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA

News (12)

Zhao Fei's testimony suggests that SARS-CoV-2 is artificial

The above key truths about the WIV by Zhao Fei suggest that SARS-CoV-2 is artificial. 

Zhao Fei, a former WIV worker familiar with the P2 and P3 laboratories, announced that the bat coronaviruses in WIV do not have live virus. They only have genome sequences. The statement is a slap on the faces of the virologists including Shi Zhengli and Zhou Peng who have recently studied RaTG15 and seven more bat coronaviruses that they discover in Mojiang in 2015, and the other scientists who argued that SARS-CoV-2 has natural origins via an intermediate host but the intermediate host has not been found. 

Shi Zhengli said that she found RaTG13 in 2013 but in her July 2020 interview with Science magazine, she revealed that the bat coronavirus is only a genome sequence. She said, "We have only isolated three bat SARS-like live coronaviruses, which are 95%-96% similar to SARS virus genome, and are less than 80% similar to SARS-CoV-2. The results were published in Nature [2013, 503(7477):535-538], Journal of Virology [2016, 90(6), 3253-3256] and PLoS Pathogens [2017, 13(11): e1006698]."

When asked if genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 is done in Wuhan or elsewhere, Shi Zhengli replied, "We isolate viruses or extract nucleic acids from samples, mainly to complete the sequencing work locally in Wuhan."


Shi Zhengli's principal, Wang Wanyi (as above), on the contrary, said that the WIV has not isolated nor obtained a live virus sample of RaTG13 from Mojiang and defended that WIV did not cause the Wuhan epidemic. Then where does SARS-CoV-2 come from?

RaTG13 is probably artificial as well. In Yan Limeng's second report on the origin of SARS-CoV-2, Yan argues that RaTG13 cannot be found in Mojiang, Yunnan because throat swabs and blood samples of two dead miners tested at the Chengdu CDC between 15 and 20 May 2012 do not show trace of any coronavirus including SARS and SARS-like coronavirus infection. Furthermore, the families of the deceased miners reject autopsy tests. Autopsy and/or biopsy is the standard clinical diagnosis of coronavirus-caused pneumonia. 

Zhao Fei wrote that virus modification is normal at all pathogen laboratories including WIV. Therefore he hinted at the uncomfortable suggestion that WIV virologists are involved in creating SARS-CoV-2 from an existing unidentified infectious disease virus sample. He pointed out an example of virus modification, "Simply put, after the key replication-related genes in the adenovirus genome are removed by genetic modification, the obtained recombinant adenovirus that cannot replicate independently is used as the backbone to express the surface protein of SARS-CoV-2 (or other viruses such as Ebola virus) and a recombinant novel coronavirus vaccine based on adenovirus is obtained.

Therefore, virus modification is a very common technical method, and there is no need to panic."


News (13)

Exclusive: Asymptomatic infections as a result of adenovirus attacks in 2016


On 31 May 2021, Lawrence Sellin revealed on his Twitter page extracts from the PLA web-site and the Journal of Preventive Medicine of Chinese People's Liberation Army contributed by netizen Anna@2020Gladiator. These research information forms part of Wang Changjun's research on his epidemiological analysis of respiratory adenovirus. 

The extracts indicate the symptoms of adenovirus are identical to covid, including fever, cough, muscle pain, sore throat, headache, fatigue, vomitting and diarrhoea. There is an adenovirus outbreak on 20 January 2016 involving PLA soldiers, and among the 1470 adenovirus cases of the outbreak, 560 cases are positive including 216 asymptomatic infection cases.



Is COVID-19 with symptomatic and asyptomatic infections an expanded scale of the adenovirus attack, a bioweapon, which is why the inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine developed by Chen Wei at the WIV is modified based on the adenovirus? 

Wang Changjun of the Nanjing CCP PLA Eastern Theater Command is the person sequencing the genome of Zhoushan Bat virus ZC45/ZXC21. The backbone of SARS-CoV-2 is modified based on this virus.

News (14)

The WHO team should be granted access to the animal laboratories of Wuhan


Zhao Fei argued that the P4 laboratory of WIV only started animal tests for SARS-CoV-2 after the CCP virus broke out in Wuhan in late December 2019. If this is so, the WHO team of investigators should have requested for access to the P2 and P3 laboratories, and not only P4.

Zhao Fei mentioned that clinical samples of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 are carried out at the P2 laboratory, not P4. She wrote, "The operation of uncultured infectious materials (can be understood as a very small amount of virus) and the operation of inactivated materials (for example, the detection of clinical samples of SARS-CoV-2 needs to be inactivated first) is carried out in the BSL-2 laboratory (P2)."

What about the P3 laboratory? Lawrence Sellin, the AstraZeneca international pharmaceutical expert, revealed that the virus test may be carried out at Wuhan University's ABSL-3 animal laboratory rather than at WIV's P3 laboratory on the monkey (Rhesus macaques) causing pneumonia in the primate and relevant studies on the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 were finally published in Cell Research on 28 February 2020.

The virus tested is the Zhoushan Bat virus ZC45/ZXC21 from Nanjing. On the Lude show on 19 January 2020, Dr Yan Limeng revealed that the backbone of SARS-CoV-2 is modified based on Zhoushan Bat Virus ZC45/ZXC21 and both coronavirus share the identical E protein. 

Sellin believes that SARS-CoV-2 is a bioweapon agent released by the CCP military to test the infectivity of the virus on animals and during the course of the pathogenicity and transmissibility studies, SARS-CoV-2 was transmitted to the workers in the animal laboratory. 

In July 2020, Shi Zhengli revealed to the Science magazine that it was impossible for anyone to enter and leave the P3 and P4 laboratories of WIV without adhering to the biosafety requirements of the laboratories.

The StayGate reporter suggests the WHO team of investigators to request for comprehensive access to the laboratories in Wuhan including WIV's P2, P3 laboratories and Wuhan University ABSL-3 laboratory at the Institute of Model Animal (IMA), and not only the P4 laboratory to clarify anyone's doubts on the origin of SARS-CoV-2.

Ref: https://staygate.blogspot.com/2021/05/sellin-how-covid-outbreak-broke-out-in.html


Image courtesy : Location of Wuhan Institute of Viology P3 laboratory. Patient Su lived near one of the laboratories. The other P3 laboratory for animal tests is at the ABSL-3 Laboratory of Wuhan University (Lawrence Sellin Twitter)

News (15)

Is 'Patient Su' Covid Patient Zero?

Reporter : Ian Birrell / Source : Daily Mail

A mistake by a leading Chinese official may have disclosed the name, address and details about one of the first people suspected of being infected with Covid-19 in Wuhan, three weeks before Beijing authorities claim they detected the initial case.

The astonishing error, revealed in a screen-grab sent to a Chinese medical journal, shows that the 61-year-old woman, known as ‘Patient Su’, lived about a mile from one of the city’s main coronavirus research labs.

She was also close to a stop for the high-speed rail line that is believed to have played a key role in spreading the virus around the city of 11 million people.

Tom Tugendhat MP, chairman of the Common’s foreign affairs committee, said: ‘The time has come for China to open up all its files so the world can find the truth about the origins of this pandemic.

‘We cannot protect against future risks if there is not recognition that we all need to share knowledge and learn from any mistakes.’

This latest development emerged as the result of an interview given to a Chinese medical journal by the scientist tasked with compiling the country’s official data on cases.

Professor Yu Chuanhua, professor of biostatistics at Wuhan University, told Health Times that he had 47,000 cases on his national database of confirmed and suspected cases by late February 2020.

These included one suspected fatality of a patient who fell ill in late September 2019.

‘There is data on a patient who became ill on September 29,’ he said. ‘The data shows the patient has not undergone nucleic testing and the clinical diagnosis is a suspected case. The patient has died. The data has not been confirmed.’

The academic then detailed two more suspected cases reported to Wuhan doctors on November 14 and 21, along with several others before December 8 – the date that China gave to the World Health Organisation for the ‘earliest onset case’.

The Health Times article included a screenshot of the two November cases on the professor’s database. Although personal details were blurred out, some were visible, including the hospital name and home district.

They show Patient Su was treated at Rongjun Hospital in Wuhan and, given the building and street numbers, almost certainly lived in the Kaile Guiyan community on Zhuodaoquan Street, about 600 metres from the medical centre.

Both the hospital and the residence are in the Hongshan district near where much of the bat-related coronavirus research was taking place in several laboratories.

These include a laboratory run by China’s Centre for Disease Control with the second-highest global levels of biosecurity little more than one mile away, while downtown sites run by Wuhan Institute of Virology are less than three miles away.

David Asher, former lead investigator for the US State Department, told The Mail on Sunday in March that three researchers at the institute had become ill with a mysterious respiratory condition in November 2019, with the wife of one scientist dying.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported these researchers ended up in hospital although China has furiously denied the claims. On Thursday, President Joe Biden ordered US intelligence services to carry out a fresh probe into the pandemic’s origins.

One Washington source told The Mail on Sunday that US intelligence on the Wuhan researchers was collected in late 2019 in data-scraping from routine surveillance. It is thought to include tapped phone conversations, texts and emails.

He said it was not discovered until efforts were intensified last year to investigate the pandemic’s origins and any possible links with Wuhan laboratories – and that it is backed by testimony from a source with access to one of the units.

It is also understood that Washington has been surprised by the lack of input from British intelligence into China’s cover-up, given their liaison over other global concerns. ‘The UK seemed surprisingly reticent,’ he said.

The area where Patient Su lived and was treated is more than 13 miles from the Huanan market originally blamed by Beijing as the source of Covid-19 and which was rapidly cleaned up after Taiwan notified the WHO about the emerging crisis. The second patient in November was listed as a 62-year-old man called Wang, who was treated at Hanyang hospital.

Professor’s Yu’s interview with Health Times took place on the day China’s health authorities issued a silencing gag on the novel coronavirus as President Xi Jinping tried to regain control of the situation.

Yu rang the journalist within two days to retract this information, claiming the dates had been entered incorrectly and all the other suspected cases before December 8 needed verification.

The details were discovered by Gilles Demaneuf, a member of the ‘Drastic’ group of online digital activists who have uncovered many of the facts seen as contradicting the official Chinese narrative that Covid-19 was a disease that crossed over naturally from animals.

‘We were able to pinpoint the exact name, age and address of a very early suspected case nearly one month before the official first case,’ said Demaneuf, a French data scientist who works for a New Zealand bank. ‘That address is right next to the subway line No 2 and also not far from a People’s Liberation Army hospital that treated some of the other earliest cases.’

This rail system carries a million people a day and connects the wet market, Wuhan Institute of Virology and an international airport.

Demaneuf argues these new findings show many more clues might be accessible if there are continued and determined efforts to evaluate the lab leak theory – rather than ‘wishful acceptance at face value of statements from China’. The WHO was widely condemned for its ‘whitewash’ investigation earlier this year when it allowed Beijing to vet its team of experts.

It adopted China’s narrative that a lab leak was ‘extremely unlikely’ while pushing discredited theories that Covid might have been imported on frozen food. The organisation’s joint report even backtracked on an influential Lancet study by Chinese scientists which examined the first 41 patients admitted to hospital and gave the date of the first case as December 1, 2019.

This man, whose wife and son also fell ill as the first confirmed family cluster of Covid, was excluded because his respiratory condition allegedly responded to antibiotics.

Meanwhile, a well-sourced report in the South China Morning Post in March claimed there were nine cases by the end of November, involving four men and five women aged between 39 and 79, with the first diagnosis on 17 November.

Southampton University modelling experts suggested China could have cut global cases by 95 per cent if it had taken action to contain the disease three weeks earlier – instead of covering up the outbreak and pressing ahead with New Year festivities that involved millions of people moving around the country. 

Ref: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9632921/Is-Patient-Su-Covids-Patient-Zero-asks-IAN-BIRRELL.html

News (16), (18) / Reporter : Luo Tingting  / Editor: Fan Ming / Translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA

News (16)

Investigating the Wuhan laboratory, there is report that British intelligence agencies and the United States have joined forces


British media revealed that British intelligence agencies are helping the United States to investigate the possibility of the SARS-CoV-2 (CCP virus, covi, novel coronavirus) leak from the Wuhan laboratory. US President Biden has ordered US intelligence agencies to submit relevant reports within three months.

According to a report by the British "Daily Telegraph" on 28 May, a senior security official in the British government confirmed that British intelligence officials are cooperating with the latest investigations of American intelligence agencies in an attempt to determine the origin of the CCP virus.

Since the Chinese Communist Party virus leaked from the laboratory, British intelligence officials have launched their own investigations into the source of the virus.

The source said, "We are contributing the intelligence we have about Wuhan, as well as proposing to help Americans verify and analyze any intelligence they have that we can assist."

The source also said, “What is needed to determine the truth behind the outbreak of the novel coronavirus is information from sufficient sources, not informed analysis, which is difficult to obtain.”

In the evening of 28 May, Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, commented on this news that if the CCP does not open traceability studies, the British security services may need to "inspire" Chinese defectors to understand the truth.

Wuhan is the origin of this global pandemic, but the CCP has repeatedly prevented international investigation organizations from going to Wuhan to conduct independent investigations into the origin of the virus.

In January 2021, an expert team sent by the World Health Organization entered the Wuhan Institute of Virology, but the entire investigation was conducted under the strict arrangements and monitoring of the CCP. The conclusion reached after the investigation is that the possibility of the CCP virus leaking from the Wuhan Institute of Viology is extremely low.

However, this conclusion was strongly questioned by the outside world, and the WHO subsequently had to admit that during the visit to Wuhan, the CCP "deliberately refused to provide data and samples."

Lawrence Young, Professor of Molecular Oncology, University of Warwick, told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), “They are not allowed to access any major data from the laboratory. It feels too coincidental, doesn’t it? The original case was found in Wuhan, and you were there. There is a very large coronavirus research center."

The international community called for an independent investigation into the origin of the CCP virus. US President Biden announced on May 26 that he had asked the US intelligence community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyze information on the origin of the Chinese Communist virus and report it to him within 90 days.

In fact, the view that the virus was leaked from the laboratory has always attracted attention from the medical community. However, some internationally renowned academic journals rarely refuse to publish relevant evidence and papers.

The "Daily Telegraph" reported that in April 2020, vaccine experts contacted the several journals such as Nature. Medical, provided papers that pointed out that the previously published papers that the virus was of natural origin were flawed, and the structural details of the virus that appeared to be man-made were ignored.

But the paper was refused publishing, Nature. Medical claims that there are many other "urgent public health and clinical interest issues" that need to be prioritized. The Journal of Virology and the biology preprint server BioRxiv also rejected the work.

However, a well-known professor quietly told the "Daily Telegraph", "In my opinion, this paper is good. Although the conclusion is surprising, it seems to be valid."

Dillov, the former head of the British MI6, believes that the escape of the virus from the laboratory is a possibility of an outbreak. These scientific journals refuse to publish any content that differs from the views of the CCP, which are outrageous.

Dillov said, "The Chinese side made an assertion without any explanation, and most people in the scientific community seem to accept the value of this assertion. Obviously, they have launched an information operation in an attempt to suppress any other views."

News (17)

Timeline of the Wuhan Institute of Viology during the epidemic from December 2019 to May 2021


Based on the information available on the Internet, the work done by the Wuhan Institute of Viology (WIV) during the pandemic includes the following:-

30 December 2019: Obtain samples of unidentified pneumonia patients from Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, a partner unit.

31 December 2019: After the identification of universal primers, the pathogen was preliminarily judged to be a coronavirus, and the library was constructed to prepare for sequencing.

2 January 2020: Obtain the whole genome sequence of the virus and confirm it as a new type of coronavirus, officially named by WHO as SARS-CoV-2 and by WIV as SARS-CoV-2 WIV04.

5 January 2020: The virus strain SARS-CoV-2 WIV04 is successfully isolated. It begins to establish a cell model of viral infection. An antiviral drug screening platform is built, and drug screening is gradually carried out.

9 January 2020: According to the standard, SARS-CoV-2 WIV04 is included in the National Virus Resource Bank, and standardized preservation is carried out. It can be provided to relevant institutions in accordance with laws and regulations. It will provide scientific research, vaccine development, and biological support in the study of COVID-19. Medical screening, etc. provide important resource support.

11 January 2020: Wuhan Institute of Virology, as one of the designated institutions of the National Health Commission, submitted the genome sequence information of SARS-CoV-2 WIV04 to the World Health Organization, which was listed in the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID) Release, to realize global sharing. 

(The first mRNA covi vaccine in the United States, Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, is developed based on the virus sequence provided by WIV. Therefore, the efforts of the WIV virologists and other Chinese scientific researchers have actually played an important role in the international prevention and control of the epidemic.)

21 January 2020: A patent application on Remdisivir's inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 replication (at the cellular level) is submitted.

22 January 2020: Start of research on inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.

23 January 2020: An article published on the preprinted website bioRxiv indicates that SARS-CoV-2 may originate from bats. At the same time, the receptor for the COVID-19 virus to enter the cell is identified as ACE2, which is for the development and testing of antiviral drugs and the prevention of viral infections. The control provides a target.

23 January 2020: The first working meeting of the Hubei Provincial Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (COVID-19, covid) Emergency Scientific Research Expert Group announced the establishment of a scientific research expert group consisting of WIV, Huazhong Agricultural University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan University, and Hubei Province and 13 experts from the Chinese Medicine Hospital, Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital and other units. The expert group is led by WIV and Shi Zhengli is the team leader. The Group focuses on the development of rapid detection technology products, research on the occurrence, development and spread of diseases and clinical diagnosis and treatment, and the development of antiviral emergency drugs and antibody drugs.

24 January 2020: A covid pathogenic testing team is established

25 January 2020:  A testing team composed of nearly 20 members urgently set up starts testing the first batch of 196 delivered samples. 

(Guan Wuxiang, Deputy Director of the WIV, stated in an interview with Science & Technology Daily on 11 May 2020 that “over 6,500 samples of throat swabs from patients with suspected covid have been tested”. After the lifting of the lockdown in Wuhan, Wuhan Institute of Virology will continue to be the one of the designated test units responsible for nucleic acid testing of clinical samples.)

28 January 2020: The screening of 3 drugs that inhibit virus replication at the cellular level, namely Remdisivir, Chloroquine and Ritonavir, is announced.

28 January 2020: The staff and graduate students of the local virus institute in the Hubei city Huanggang to support pathogenic testing in Huanggang are organized.

28 January 2020: The SARS-CoV-2 IgM/IgG antibody detection kit (enzyme-linked immunoassay) with Livzon Reagent is jointly developed, and an emergency approval application to the State Drug Administration is submitted .

29 January 2020: The establishment of mouse and non-human primate models has been basically completed, which will provide key support for follow-up research.

29 January 2020: Preliminary test of Shuanghuanglian's inhibitory effect on SARS-CoV-2 at the cellular level.

30 January 2020: Livzon Reagent and Wuhan Institute of Virology launches the first antibody detection kit.

30 January 2020: Internally report the results of the Shuanghuanglian test (the results have a greater social impact after being exposed by the media).

3 February 2020: The joint research and development progress of Livzon Reagent and Wuhan Institute of Virology is announced, introducing a variety of detection kits, including IgG/IgM antibody detection kit (colloidal gold method), nucleic acid detection kit (PCR-fluorescence method) and IgM/IgG antibody detection kit (enzyme-linked immunoassay). The above-mentioned products have completed R&D and trial production, and are cooperating with multiple disease control centers and medical institutions to expand the number of clinical samples to further evaluate the products to verify their diagnostic sensitivity and diagnostic specificity.

3 February 2020: Shi Zhengli's team publishes a paper in the journal Nature and reports a bat coronavirus (named RaTG13) that was 96.2% similar to SARS-CoV-2.

5 February 2020: Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital starts Phase III clinical trials of Remdesivir to test the effect of treating covid.

7 February 2020: The Ministry of Science and Technology stated that chloroquine phosphate is effective for the treatment of covid. Experts unanimously recommend that chloroquine phosphate should be included in the new version of the diagnosis and treatment guidelines as soon as possible to expand the scope of clinical application.

7 February 2020: Relevant domestic units began to conduct clinical trials of Shuanghuanglian Oral Liquid for the treatment of pneumonia caused by covi infection. The registration number of the Chinese Clinical Trial Registration Center is ChiCTR2000029605.

7 February 2020: The first batch of viruses cultivated on a large scale according to vaccine production standards is harvested.

11 February 2020: The work of determining the antibody titer in the blood of clinically cured patients starts.

2020/02/19: “A letter from all employees and graduate students caused by the Wuhan virus: A letter from all employees and postgraduates: Do a good job in scientific and technological research” is issued, which states, "When rumors are everywhere and the sky is full of rumors, we will use faith to express our will and faith to inspire and demand the whole institute Employees and graduate students "show the mission and responsibilities of the science and technology'national team' with their solid work performance, and provide strong scientific and technological support for winning the epidemic prevention and control war." 

14 March 2020: The SARS-CoV-2 serological test kit developed in cooperation with Zhuhai Livzon Reagent Co., Ltd. passes the approval of the State Food and Drug Administration and  the medical device registration certificate is obtained. 

(According to Guan Wuxiang’s introduction in an interview on 2020/05/10, Wuhan Institute of Virology and Shenzhen United Medical Technology Co., Ltd. have jointly developed a nucleic acid detection kit for COVID-19, which has entered the emergency approval procedure of the State Drug Administration, but the details are not available.).

18 March 2020: Associate researcher Wang Manli of Wuhan Institute of Virology and researcher Hu Zhihong cooperate with Beijing Institute of Toxicology and Medicine and discover that chloroquine's low-toxic derivative, hydroxychloroquine, can effectively inhibit SARS-CoV-2 in cultured cells in vitro. Cell Discov. 2020 Mar 18;6:16. doi: 10.1038/s41421-020-0156-0. eCollection 2020. 

(Although there was a view later that chloroquine etc. cannot effectively inhibit viral infections in clinical applications, it cannot be obliterated. Researchers use cells in vitro to identify possible effective drugs. After all, in the process of drug development and new use of old drugs, only a very small number of effective drugs in vitro can eventually be turned into drugs, but the work of screening drugs in vitro still needs to be affirmed.)

8 April 2020: Researcher Liu Zhai of Wuhan Institute of Virology and Capital Institute of Children's Research has developed a new method for rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 based on reverse transcription isothermal amplification technology. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2020 Apr 8. pii: S1198-743X(20)30186-5. doi: 10.1016/j.cmi.2020.04.001. [Epub ahead of print]

10 April 2020: Associate researcher Qiu Yang and researcher Zhou Xi of Wuhan Institute of Virology revealed that the nucleocapsid protein encoded by SARS-CoV-2 can be used as an inhibitor of virus production to inhibit intracellular RNA interference. Sci China Life Sci. 2020 Apr 10. doi: 10.1007/s11427-020-1692-1. [Epub ahead of print]

12 April 2020: The SARS-CoV-2 inactivated vaccine jointly developed by Wuhan Institute of Virology and Sinopharm Wuhan Institute of Biological Products obtains clinical trial approval. The vaccine relied on a new coronavirus strain that was first isolated by the Wuhan Institute of Virology is jointly developed by the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Wuhan Institute of Biological Products after co-cloning and screening. 

15 April 2020: As experts, Guan Wuxiang, deputy director of Wuhan Institute of Virology, and Zhang Dingyu, director of Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, participate in Hubei Province's national safety education and publicity to share biosafety knowledge, analyzed and sorted out the current status of biosafety in China, and focus on better maintenance of National Biosafety with their own views.

18 April 2020: Yuan Zhiming, a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and director of the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, analyzed and refuted conspiracy theories such as man-made viruses and virus leaks in an interview with CGTN.

22 April 2020: Some media broke that the network and mailbox of the WIV were attacked, and the email addresses and passwords of many researchers were dragged into the library, and an unknown group compiled a copy of @wh.iov.cn With the list of email accounts and passwords, Shi Zhengli's mailbox has been hacked into the library hundreds of times. Some people’s mailboxes have been attacked more than 3,000 times, and some lab computers also need to be reinstalled after being attacked. (However, thanks to the strong network security guarantee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, no mailboxes were compromised.)

23 April 2020: The SARS-CoV-2 inactivated vaccine jointly developed by Wuhan Institute of Virology and Wuhan Institute of Biological Products has completed the first phase of vaccination of 96 people in the first three age groups. 

28 April 2020: Yuan Zhiming, a researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and director of the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, said in an exclusive interview with Reuters that the claim that SARS-CoV-2 was synthesized by the Wuhan Institute of Virology is baseless and the origin of COVID-19 is still inconclusive.

22 May 2020: Associate researcher Wang Manli of Wuhan Institute of Virology and researcher Hu Zhihong cooperate with Beijing Institute of Toxicology and Medicine and discover that the anti-influenza virus drug Arbidol Hydrochloride can effectively inhibit the CCP virus in cultured cells in vitro. Cell Discov. 2020 May 2;6:28. doi: 10.1038/s41421-020-0169-8. eCollection 2020.

7 May 2020: Zhang Leike, associate researcher of Wuhan Institute of Virology, and the team of Rao Zihe and Yang Haitao from the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences revealed the mechanism of the anti-tumor drug camofluoride inhibiting the main protease of the CCP virus based on the protein structure. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2020 May 7. doi: 10.1038/s41594-020-0440-6. [Epub ahead of print]

10 May 2020: Guan Wuxiang, Deputy Director of Wuhan Institute of Virology, accepted an interview with Science and Technology Daily, introduces the scientific research work in the covid epidemic situation.

23 May 2020: Wang Yanyi, the Director of WIV, reveals to CGTN that the P4 laboratory does not have a physical trace of RaTG13. She says the virologists have not isolated nor obtained the live virus RaTG13.

July 2020: Shi Zhengli accepts interview with Science magazine and reveals that SARS-CoV-2 can be derived from any other bat coronavirus. The evolution of SARS-CoV-2 from RaTG13 is only a theory. can be any other bat coronavirus. Critics conclude RaTG13 is just a genome sequence that she fabricated.

11 January 2021: The Sunday Post of the United Kingdom found that a large number of important materials related to the WIV published by the National Natural Science Foundation of China in the past have been deleted. This once again caused discussions about the Beijing authorities concealing the origin of SARS-CoV-2 (CCP virus).

25 May 2021: The paper "Identification of a novel lineage bat SARS-related coronaviruses that use bat ACE2 receptor" by Shi Zhengli, Zhou Peng and other viologists is published on the Biology preprint server bioRxiv. For the first time, RaTG15 is mentioned but it does not indicate that SARS-CoV-2 originates from bats and other animals. 


News (18)

Experts warns of 'COVID-32' if origins of COVID-19 are not uncovered

Reporter : Jackie Salo / Source : The New York Post

A full investigation into the origin of COVID-19 in China is “absolutely critical” in order to prevent future pandemics — and avoid “COVID-32,” an expert warned Sunday.

“There’s going to be COVID-26 and COVID-32 unless we fully understand the origins of COVID-19. This is absolutely critical,” Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Hotez said that he believes the US needs to do more than launch an intelligence investigation into theories that the virus emerged naturally from animals or escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China.

“I’m personally of the opinion that we’ve pushed intelligence as far as we can,” Hotez said, saying that the US needs to send experts to the original epicenter of the pandemic in Wuhan.

“We need a team of scientists, genealogists, biologists, bat ecologists in the Hubei province for six months to a year-long period and fully unravel the origins of COVID-19.”

Hotez, however, acknowledged that China may be resistant to a full investigation. A World Health Organization team probing the site earlier this year was stymied from independent digging due to interference from Beijing.

“I think we have to really put a lot of pressure on China, including possible sanctions to allow a team of outstanding epidemiologists and virologists in China with unfettered access to the animals, the people, to samples [and] the lab,” Hotez said.

He warned that without “full access,” the origins may never be uncovered.

“I think you really need to have detailed analysis about the bat populations — all of the possible reservoir animals and people — and without that, it’s going to be really hard to work this out,” he said.


News (19)

Foshan 1-year-old baby diagnosed, officials admit the virus spreads faster and stronger


Image : On 28 May, a 1-year-old baby in Foshan, Guangdong was diagnosed. Officials admitted that the epidemic spread faster and stronger. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)


The Guangzhou epidemic spread rapidly. A few days ago, a family in Foshan was diagnosed with three generations, including a 1-year-old baby. Officials warned that this time the CCP virus has spread faster and stronger.

The Chinese Communist Party officially notified on 28 May that Guangzhou and Foshan each had 1 newly confirmed local case, 8 local asymptomatic infections, 5 cases in Guangzhou, 1 case in Shenzhen, and 2 cases in Foshan.

The Foshan epidemic came from Guangzhou. The newly diagnosed patient on the 28th was a 1-year-old baby girl. There were already 2 asymptomatic infections in the baby girl’s home. The Nanhai District of Foshan where they live has been adjusted to a medium-risk area.

In addition, the Chancheng District of Foshan, which is adjacent to the South China Sea, began to carry out general screening of nucleic acid tests for all employees since 28 May.

Huang Guanglie, Director of the Guangzhou Municipal Health Commission, admitted on 29 May that the spread of the epidemic was very fast and powerful.

Currently, the confirmed cases in Guangzhou and Foshan have spread for 4 generations. From the Guangzhou native case Guo, who was diagnosed on May 21 (1st generation), to Song XX who was infected after drinking morning tea (2nd generation), to Song’s daughter-in-law, Lei XX (3rd generation), to Foshan, newly asymptomatic Infected Wang (4th generation).

Since the 29th, Baihedong Street, Zhongnan Street, Dongnao Street, and Chongkou Street in Liwan District of Guangzhou City have been adjusted to medium-risk areas and are in a state of lockdown. Each household is limited to one person per day to go out to buy daily necessities, and other personnel are not allowed to go out.

A security guard at Peizhen Primary School in Liwan City told The Epoch Times that now the school is closed and the community is closed. The (government) does not say anything, that is, they are all closed, the police are on duty, people cannot move around, and they stay at home.

Wanfang (pseudonym), a citizen of Longxi Middle Road, Hailong Street, said that all roads there were closed on the 28th, and intersections were blocked, so they could only enter but not leave, and the takeaway brother could not deliver. He does not know how many people have been diagnosed, so he can only cooperate.

Due to the rapid spread of the epidemic in Guangzhou, the people panicked. Under official propaganda, the people lined up for vaccination. The online video showed that a large number of people gathered at the vaccination spot, waiting for the vaccine. Outsiders worry that the gathering of so many people during the outbreak period may accelerate the spread of the epidemic.

Some citizens bluntly said, "Don't be afraid of not being able to be excluded, but afraid of collective infection."

In addition, on 26 May, residents of Dongshan in Yuexiu District of Guangzhou were tested for nucleic acid overnight. The residents were notified that all schools were closed.

Guangzhou Yuexiu District is the seat of Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee, Guangzhou Military Region and Guangdong Provincial Party Committee. The Guangzhou Military Region Auditorium, the Military Region General Hospital, the kindergarten, the Provincial Party Committee Compound, the Provincial Party Committee Organization Department, and the Ministry of Communications are all located in the area.

Netizens said, “There are many high-ranking officials and military cadres living in Yuexiu District, and the authorities are like a big enemy.”

As of now, the source of the epidemic in Guangzhou is still unknown, and the epidemic is continuing to spread rapidly. In view of the fact that the CCP has always concealed the epidemic, the outside world doubts that the official is still covering up the truth of the epidemic. In addition, the extreme prevention and control measures taken by the CCP have also severely affected people's lives.

News (20)

House lawmakers introduce bills to address origins of the CCP virus pandemic

Reporter : Janita Kan / Source : The Epoch Times PREMIUM

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced two measures that seek to equip the United States with the ability to investigate the origins of the CCP virus and allow Americans to sue Beijing for suppressing information about the pandemic.

The proposals follow calls for a new probe into the origins of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus amid widespread concerns that the pandemic may have been sparked by a laboratory accident.

The first bill, known as the Made in America Emergency Preparedness Act, authorizes the creation of a 9/11-style commission that would assess the national emergency response to the pandemic by the federal government and private sector, and determine precautionary steps to be taken in the event of a future national emergency. One of the commission’s purposes would be to investigate the origins of the virus.

The commission will be required to report its findings to Congress and the White House. Some of the recommendations would include steps the federal government could take to become more self-sufficient in terms of sourcing medication and personal protective equipment from domestic sources in a national emergency.

“We simply cannot outsource our public safety and national security to foreign nations. We must reconstitute our health care and public safety supply chain back to the United States,”  Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, said in a statement. “Medical products, protective equipment, pharmaceuticals, emergency response equipment, and all other critical items and materials needed to respond to a national emergency must be produced domestically for domestic consumption, especially during a critical, time-sensitive crisis.”

The bill is co-sponsored by five Democrats and four additional Republicans.

The second measure, known as the Never Again International Outbreak Prevention Act and introduced by Fitzpatrick and Rep. Conor Lamb (D-Pa.), seeks to strip sovereign immunity, a legal rule that insulates countries from being sued in other countries’ courts, from foreign nations who have intentionally misled the international community about a health concern that could lead to a pandemic.

“As we have seen from COVID-19, the Chinese Communist Party has been intentionally and maliciously misleading the rest of the world about the scope and spread of the novel coronavirus. We must hold other nations accountable for their actions that threaten and harm the livelihoods of Americans and people across the world,” Fitzpatrick said.

Lamb said, “Congress needs to act now to ensure that there are consequences for international players who behave like China did during the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak.”

The Chinese regime has been accused of engaging in a cover-up of the CCP virus’s origins by silencing doctors, officials, and scientists who tried to warn others.

Experts have previously told The Epoch Times that the Chinese regime’s actions in downplaying the severity of the virus and its mismanagement could have violated its duty under the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Health Regulations to expeditiously share information on a broad category of diseases such as new influenza-like illnesses such as the coronavirus.

The purpose of the International Health Regulations (pdf) is “to prevent, protect against, control, and provide a public health response to the international spread of disease in ways that are commensurate with and restricted to public health risks, and which avoid unnecessary interference with international traffic and trade,” according to its foreword.

The revised 2005 version is an agreement between 196 countries requiring parties to notify the WHO “of all events which may constitute a public health emergency of international concern within its territory.”

It also requires parties to continue to inform the WHO of “timely, accurate, and sufficiently detailed public health information available to it on the notified event,” including laboratory results, source and type of risk, number of cases and deaths, and conditions affecting the spread of the disease and the health measures employed.

The lawmakers’ proposed bill would require foreign nations to put in place a system to report outbreaks of new diseases so the international community can get ahead of future pandemics.

The bill seeks to create a global “sentinel surveillance” system to collect data, identify trends, identify outbreaks, and provide monitoring on disease.

“Countries would be required to report all new cases within three days. This legislation would also give the federal government the tools necessary to encourage foreign nations to comply with these goals and to punish bad actors,” the lawmakers said.

President Joe Biden said last week that the U.S. intelligence community (IC) believes there are “two likely scenarios” that may have caused the CCP virus outbreak in China.

“After I became president, in March, I had my National Security Advisor task the Intelligence Community to prepare a report on their most up-to-date analysis of the origins of COVID-19, including whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident,” Biden said in a White House statement, adding that he wanted intelligence agents to “redouble” their efforts in finding the origin of the virus.

“As of today, the U.S. Intelligence Community has ‘coalesced around two likely scenarios’ but has not reached a definitive conclusion on this question,” the president stated. “Here is their current position: ‘while two elements in the IC leans toward the former scenario and one leans more toward the latter—each with low or moderate confidence—the majority of elements do not believe there is sufficient information to assess one to be more likely than the other.’”

The president has directed the IC to produce a report in 90 days regarding the virus’s origins.

News (21)

Covid lab leak argument grows, animal source theory likely "shrunken", says ex-FDA head

Reporter : Sam Raskin / Source : The New York Post

The former head of the Food and Drug Administration said Sunday that the argument for COVID-19 originating in a lab has grown — while the animal source origin theory has “contracted.”

“The side of the ledger that suggests that this could have come out of a lab has continued to expand, and the side of the ledger that suggests this has come from of a zoonotic source, come out of nature, really hasn’t budged, and if anything you can argue that that side of the ledger has contracted,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“We’ve done an exhaustive search for this so-called intermediate host, the animal that could have been a host to this virus before it spread to human, [and] we have not found such an animal,” Gottlieb, the FDA commissioner from 2017 to April 2019, explained.

“We’ve also fully disproven the market, the food market that was originally implicated in the outbreak as the source of the outbreak, so that side of the ledger probably has shrunken.”

The Chinese government could provide “exculpatory” evidence showing the virus that caused the pandemic didn’t leak from a lab in Wuhan, but they’ve yet to do so, Gottlieb said.

“China could provide evidence that would be exculpatory here,” he said.

“They could provide the blood samples from those who worked in the lab in Wuhan, they’ve refused to do that, they could provide the source strains, some of the original strains, they’ve refused to do that, they could provide access to some of the early samples that we can sequences, they can provide an inventory of what was in the lab [at] The Wuhan Institute of Virology, the lab that has been implicated in a potential lab leak, they have refused to do that.”

Gottlieb, who sits on Pfizer’s board, said that since the lab was “poorly controlled” and performed “high-risk research” on SARS-like viruses, news that its workers became infected with novel coronavirus-like symptoms in fall 2019 adds credence to the once-maligned theory that COVID-19 leaked from the facility

“That side of the ledger has expanded and I think that’s why there’s renewed focus on this,” he said of the lab leak theory.

If the theory was determined by experts to be probable, the development could lead to heightened safety measures in labs where people conduct research on viruses, he said.

“It’s important to understand what the possibility is that this came out of a lab, so we can focus more international attention on trying to get better inventories about these labs, better security, make sure they’re properly built,” said Gottlieb.

But when it comes to knowing how to handle the spread of the virus, Gottlieb said knowing whether it started in a lab or in from animals wouldn’t change much.

“I think what we know about the virus we already know about the virus,” he said.

“There’s nothing that we’re going to learn about the characteristics of the current virus by knowing its origin, quite frankly. We’ve had enough experience with this virus to fully understand it.”

Gottlieb’s comments come as Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives are pushing bills to investigate the virus’ origin.

Three researchers at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology in November 2019 came down with “symptoms consistent with both Covid-19 and common seasonal illness,” The Wall Street Journal reported on May 23.

News (22) to (23) / Reporter : Li Jing / Editor : Li Shiyuan / https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/5/30/n12986260.htm / Translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA

News (22)

Guangzhou "closed city" citizens travel restricted, epidemic spreads to other provinces
Image : The picture shows people in Guangzhou queuing to undergo a nucleic acid test for the Chinese Communist Party virus on 20 April 2020. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Recently, the epidemic in Guangdong Province is spreading rapidly. Officials say this epidemic is spreading fast and has a strong spreading power. As the capital of Guangdong Province, the Guangzhou municipal authorities have begun to lock down the city in disguise, while at the same time adopting "restrictions on traffic" and "restrictions on purchases" of local people.
On 30 May, the Guangzhou Municipal Government announced that Guangzhou and Foshan once again added asymptomatic infections on 29 May. According to the report, all people infected in this round of the Guangzhou epidemic were infected with B.1.617.2, the "Indian mutant" of the CCP virus, and those infected in this round of the Shenzhen epidemic were all infected with B.1.1.7, the "British mutant" of the CCP virus.
The notification also mentioned that the characteristics of this epidemic are that the virus spreads very quickly and has a strong transmission power. "It can be spread by eating a meal together or by short-term indirect contact."
Currently, four places in Guangzhou have been upgraded to medium-risk areas. The chain of infection related to the Guangzhou epidemic is still spreading, spreading to Guangzhou and its surrounding areas such as Foshan, Maoming, and Nanning, Guangxi.
At night of 30 May, the Guangzhou Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters issued a notice stating that from 10 pm on 31 May, passengers leaving Guangzhou through airports, railways, and highway passenger stations within the jurisdiction of Guangzhou (excluding foreign transit passengers), The green code of "Health Code" must be presented and a certificate of negative nucleic acid test within 72 hours must be held. Drivers and passengers of small cars leaving the province of Guangzhou must hold a certificate of negative nucleic acid test within 72 hours for inspection.
In addition, the Guangzhou Municipal Government has issued "travel restrictions" and "purchase restrictions" notices. The official requirement is that all personnel in the areas of Hailong Street, Baihedong Street, Zhongnan Street, Dongnao Street, and Chongkou Street in Liwan District should be at home. Stop all activities that are not necessary for daily life, except that each household is limited to one person per day to go out to buy daily necessities, other people are not allowed to go out.
In addition, entertainment venues, indoor cultural stadiums, wholesale markets (except farmers' markets), and student child care institutions are all closed, kindergartens and training institutions have suspended offline teaching, and dine-in places are prohibited.
News (23)
New confirmed covid cases reported locally in many provinces including Guangxi, Yunnan, Gansu, Shandong, Fujian and Heilongjiang from 1 to 29 May 2021
Image : Tengchong, Yunnan requires negative nucleic acid test result certificates from passengers intending to board flights, and the epidemic in Yunnan and outside is severe, according to Kunming Airlines, that has daily flights from Kunming to Tengchong.
On 30 May, the National Health Commission of CCP issued an epidemic notification on its website. On 29 May, there were new confirmed cases in Shanghai, Fujian, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.
According to the news released on the website of the National Health Commission from 1 to 29 May, Guangdong, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Sichuan and Xinjiang frequently appeared in epidemic notifications. In addition to the above-mentioned provinces and cities, Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangxi, Yunnan, Ningxia, Gansu, Shanxi, Shandong, Anhui, Fujian, Liaoning, and Heilongjiang have reported new confirmed covid cases.
News (24)
Guangzhou epidemic heats up rapidly, mutant virus has entered the community
Reporter : Luo Tingting  / Editor: Fan Ming / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2021/05/31/a103131412.html / Extract translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA / Image : Video Screenshot

The super-fast spread of B.1.617.2 has entered the Guangzhou community, and the epidemic in Guangzhou has rapidly increased. The government announced that it will expand the scope of national inspections and implement stricter traffic control measures from 30 May. Local netizens said bluntly: Guangzhou is now in a "quasi-lockdown" state.
On 30 May, Chen Bin, Deputy Director of the Guangzhou Municipal Health Commission, notified that from the 21 to 30 May, Guangzhou had a total of 5 confirmed cases and 21 asymptomatic infections. All patients were infected with the Indian variant virus, which spreads extremely fast.
The report stated that on 29 May, the first round of expanded nucleic acid investigations in Guangzhou was basically completed, and a total of 2,252,600 people were tested. As of 2 pm on 30 May, 20 people were found to be infected in this round of investigation, including 19 asymptomatic infections and 1 confirmed case.
Due to the rapid spread of the epidemic, the Guangzhou authorities announced that from 30 May, the scope of national testing will be further expanded to cover Yuexiu District, Haizhu District, Tianhe District, Baiyun District, and Panyu District in addition to Liwan District.
There are 11 districts in Guangzhou, including Yuexiu, Haizhu, Liwan, Tianhe, Baiyun, Huangpu, Huadu, Panyu, Nansha, Conghua, and Zengcheng. Among them, Yuexiu District is the location of the core departments of the Guangzhou government. Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee, Guangzhou Military Region, Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, Guangzhou Military Region Auditorium, Military Region General Hospital, kindergartens, Provincial Party Committee Compound, Provincial Party Committee Organization Department, and Ministry of Communications are all located in this area.
In the evening of 30 May, Tianhe District of Guangzhou issued a notice to carry out large-scale human nucleic acid testing. Tianhe District has set up 108 nucleic acid testing sites in medical institutions and 174 temporary nucleic acid testing sites on the streets.
That night, the Guangzhou Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters issued a notice to strengthen the management of vehicles and personnel leaving Guangzhou. From 10 pm on May 31st, passengers leaving Guangzhou via airports, railways, highway passenger stations and other stations within the jurisdiction of Guangzhou (excluding foreign transit passengers) must present the "Health Code" green code and hold for 72 hours Proof of negative nucleic acid test. Drivers and passengers of small cars leaving the province of Guangzhou must hold a certificate of negative nucleic acid test within 72 hours for inspection.
As of now, the source of the epidemic in Guangzhou is still unknown. The first confirmed case was a 75-year-old woman surnamed Guo. She was diagnosed with B.1.617.2 on 21 May but she has no history of overseas travel.
Huang Guanglie, Director of the Guangzhou Municipal Health Commission, admitted on 29 May  that the spread of the epidemic was very fast and powerful, and it is very likely that there will be more local infections.
Variant viruses can be spread by eating a meal or by brief indirect contact. The service staff who delivered food to the morning tea shop for a woman surnamed Guo became infected simply because they did not wear a mask to deliver the food. At present, this "morning tea transmission chain" has spread to 4 generations and has spread to Foshan.
At present, the Guangzhou epidemic has caused panic among the local people, with long queues for testing and vaccination. Some netizens in Guangzhou were puzzled by the sudden outbreak of the epidemic, "What is going on? Why did it suddenly explode!"
Some netizens also said that the atmosphere of the epidemic has become more tense today. The gossip said that Guangzhou issued a notice tonight to further tighten community control measures. One said, "There are a lot of gossips about storing food on the Internet, and I just saw that the dishes on Meituan have been sold out. We came out to eat in the rain, and we will see how we are notified. I hope I can come to the restaurant to eat freely. The restaurant registered guest information today. I don't quite believe that there will be food supply problems in Guangzhou." 
Some netizens said that when they woke up today (31 May), they saw that Guangzhou has expanded the scope of testing. Yuexiu District and Haizhu District will conduct all-employee testing and investigation by community and street, and it will take two days to complete. Watching the previous video, during the national inspection in Liwan District, many people crowded together in line, which must have been a very bad experience. A netizen said, "I hope that the process can be improved in the future to reduce congestion. When a lot of people are crowded together, I think of the word "livestock"." 
In the past few days, Guangzhou citizens braved the sweltering heat to gather on the streets, waiting for testing. The crowd is too dense, causing concern. Some citizens said, "Don't be afraid of not being discharged, but afraid of collective infection."
In addition, starting from 29 May, Baihedong Street, Zhongnan Street, Dongnao Street, and Chongkou Street in Liwan District, Guangzhou City have been adjusted to medium-risk areas and are under lockdown. Each household is limited to one person per day to go out to buy daily necessities. Personnel are not allowed to go out. 
Some Guangzhou netizens said on Weibo that Guangzhou is actually in a state of quasi-lockdown city. Outsiders questioned that the actual number of infections may far exceed the official figures when the Guangzhou authorities have been so aggressive in dealing with the epidemic.
A security guard at Peizhen Primary School in Liwan District revealed to The Epoch Times that now the school is closed and the community is closed. The (government) does not say anything, that is, all are closed, police are on duty, people cannot move around, and they stay at home.
The security guard also said that as far as he knows, it is not just his school, but the entire area.
News (25)
U.S. hospital forces employees to be vaccinated or fired, 117 people filed a complaint
Reporters : Jack Phillips / Xie Jiaxuan / Editor : Li Yuan / https://www.epochtimes.com/gb/21/5/30/n12986393.htmDirect translation
The Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas, USA, is facing a class action lawsuit against 117 unvaccinated employees. These employees accused the hospital of compulsory vaccination of medical staff in order to increase the number of vaccinations, otherwise they would have to find another job.
The plaintiff argued in the Montgomery County court last Friday (May 28) that the vaccine is currently only available for emergency use, and that the hospital’s forced vaccination is equivalent to a human experiment. They do not want to be "guinea pigs", so they urged the judge to terminate this coercive measure.
According to the lawsuit, the employee was sued and said, “Houston Methodist Hospital forces its employees to become human 'guinea pigs'... These vaccination tasks involve requiring employees to undergo medical experiments as a prerequisite for supporting their families.” : Pfizer and Moderna have objections to the "experimental COVID-19 mRNA" vaccine, and pointed out that "this is the first time in American history that employers have forced employees to participate in experimental vaccine trials as a condition for continued employment. "
The lawsuit states that the employer’s mandatory requirement for vaccination is a problematic rule, because even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has “approved emergency use rights for these products, the agency still has a lot of knowledge about these products, including vaccines. Effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2 infection, death and transmission."
Pfizer and Modena’s vaccines were granted emergency use rights in December last year. Johnson & Johnson vaccine was approved at the beginning of this year.
The plaintiff cited a letter from Marc Boom, the hospital's president and chief executive officer. In the letter, Boum directed "employees to review the human resources policy, which outlines the consequences of non-compliance before 7 June, including suspension and final dismissal."
According to the lawsuit, the branch chief executive officer of the hospital, David Bernard, once said to an employee, “100% vaccination is more important than your personal freedom... each of you (position) All can be replaced. If you don’t like your job, you can leave and we will (find someone) to take your place."
However, the hospital spokesperson disputed this sentence in a statement to The Epoch Times. He said that Bernard “has never said this to this dissatisfied employee” and that he “respects all employees.” ——We are an organization based on (inclusive) values, and respect is one of our core values."
The spokesperson attached the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines to the statement, stating that the government recommends that employers allow employees to be vaccinated.
The plaintiff’s defense lawyer Jared Woodfield stated that the defendant’s compulsory vaccination policy “seriously and flagrantly violated” the Nuremberg Code, which was introduced in 1947 after the fall of the German Nazi regime.
Woodfield said, “In order to promote business and increase profits at the expense of the health of employees of medical institutions, the public advertised that they'required all employees and employed doctors to be vaccinated.' Obviously, the defendant's employees were forced to act as human beings.' "Little White Mouse" to increase the defendant’s profits."
Dean Boom issued a statement after the complaint that 99% of the hospital's employees have been vaccinated, "We proudly support our employees and our mission to protect patients" and regret the choice of a few employees. He said, "It is legal for medical institutions to compulsory vaccination, just as we have done with influenza vaccines since 2009."
News (26)
1.1 million people fully vaccinated in Mongolia, total covid cases 56,621 on 29 May
Source : Montsame

According to Mongolia's Ministry of Health, reported that 769 new covid cases were detected after a total of 8,600 PCR tests were performed nationwide in the past 24 hours before 29 May 2021. 


In specific, 681 new cases were confirmed in Ulaanbaatar city and 87 cases were detected in rural regions, including Orkhon, Bulgan, Khuvsgul, Khovd, Tuv, Arkhangai, Tuv, Khentii, Dornod, Dornogobi, Uvurkhangai and Gobi-Altai aimags. As a result, the nationwide infection tally is now 56,621, with the cases registered in the capital city grown to 50,139.  


As of 29 May 2021 local time, 571 coronavirus patients had recovered, making the number of covid patient recoveries 49,320. A total of 4,345 coronavirus patients are being treated at hospitals in Ulaanbaatar city and the rural aimags. Among them, 467 patients’ health are in serious conditions, reports the National Center for Communicable Diseases (NCCD), the primary healthcare organization in the country responding to the pandemic. Another 2,665 patients who are experiencing mild symptoms are being treated at home under surveillance of family health clinic while taking home isolation precautions.


NCCD also reported five new COVID-19 related deaths, raising the country's death toll to 268, on 29 May. The casualties are covid patients aged between 47 and 90 years old, who were being treated at NCCD in Ulaanbaatar.  

News (27)
Laos reports only 1 new covid case on 31 May 2021
Source : The Laotian Times

Laos has reported just a single case of Covid-19 on 31 May 2021, imported to Champasack across the border with Thailand.

Dr. Sisavath Soutthanalaxay confirmed the news at the daily briefing by the National Taskforce for Covid-19 Prevention and Control.

He said that following 2,002 tests in the past 24 hours, only a single imported case of Covid-19 was confirmed in Champasack province.

Vientiane Capital and other provinces that have previously recorded community spread of the virus have not reported any new cases.

Dr. Sisavath said that although the number of cases is seeing a downward trend, residents must remain vigilant and not let their guard down against the virus.

He said everyone must continue to comply with prevention measures stipulated by the Prime Minister and provincial or local authorities.


News (28)

Two Myanmar towns on Indian border locked down amid COVID-19 spike

Source : The Irrawaddy

Myanmar’s military regime has imposed stay-at-home orders upon two towns on the Indian border in the country’s northwest, Chin State’s Tunzan (Tonzang) Township and Sagaing Region’s Tamu town, after a spike in COVID-19 cases there.

The orders were issued Friday after Myanmar reported 96 new cases of COVID-19 a day earlier, the country’s highest daily rise in coronavirus cases since Feb. 6.

More than a dozen people tested positive for COVID-19 at Tonzang Public Hospital and Cikha town’s hospital in Tonzang on Thursday, according to sources in the township’s public health sector.

In Cikha, which is close to the Indian border, there were 11 COVID-19-positive cases reported on Thursday; seven of these patients are in serious condition.

The hospital source said the 11 patients had no history of travel outside of their town or across the border.

Tonzang and Tamu are adjacent townships and are both on the Indian border.

On Friday, the junta’s Ministry of Health and Sports (MOHS) reported 72 new cases of COVID-19 after testing 1,230 people across the country. It didn’t reveal the number of cases in Tonzang and Tamu. Health authorities in Tamu were not available for immediate comment on Saturday.

On Friday, some domestic flights in the country were suspended until next month as a measure to curb the spread of infections.

Friday’s stay-at-home orders are the first since the military seized power by overthrowing the country’s democratically elected government on Feb. 1.

The number of daily swab tests being administered has declined dramatically since the coup, with thousands of healthcare workers refusing to work for the military regime.

Under the ousted civilian government, around 16,000 to 18,000 swab tests a day were carried out in January. But since the coup, only around 1,500 to 2,000 tests per day have been administered.

Myanmar reported a total of 143,486 COVID-19 cases as of Friday, from a total of 2,617,696 tests. The death toll stands at 3,216, according to the MOHS. Myanmar reported between 11 and 35 positive cases daily from Feb. 8 to May 26.

Myanmar’s COVID-19 vaccine program—initiated by the NLD government on Jan. 27, with healthcare staff and volunteers first in line to receive vaccine shots—has struggled under the military regime, with millions of civilians refusing the jab and thousands of health workers choosing to go on strike and join the civil disobedience movement rather than work for the junta.

Coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said early this month that more than 1.9 million people in Myanmar had been inoculated.

News (29) to (30) / Reporter : Li Yun / Editor: Fan Ming / https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2021/05/31/a103131418.htmlDirect translation

News (29)

Japanese media: One of the most important events in the Xi era sets off stormy waves in China

Image : On 2 July 2019, during the European Parliament meeting in Strasbourg, France, the European Union flag flies beside the European Parliament. (Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images)

Recently, the European Parliament passed the freezing "China-EU Investment Agreement" with an overwhelming number of votes. For this agreement, the CCP has made nearly 7 years of negotiation efforts. According to Japanese media, the European Parliament’s move has set off stormy waves throughout China, and the incident is regarded as the most important event in the Xi Jinping era.

In late May, the European Parliament adopted a resolution of 599 votes in favor, 30 votes against and 58 abstentions to freeze the discussion and approval of the China-EU Comprehensive Investment Agreement (The Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, CAI).

The EU-China investment agreement has been negotiated for 7 years and has been deadlocked for many years. At the end of last year, negotiations were finally completed under German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the rotating EU presidency.

At that time, Xi Jinping directly intervened and made major concessions in a number of key areas such as market access and fair competition. The two sides announced the completion of negotiations. Beijing had touted this agreement as a huge victory on the international political stage.

According to the analysis of the Nikkei Asian Review, the European Parliament’s freezing of the China-EU Investment Agreement was regarded as a setback by Xi Jinping, which set off stormy waves throughout China, and this happened more than a month before the founding of the Communist Party of China. It is the most important event in the Xi Jinping era.

The report said that some party members worry that the centennial atmosphere will be weakened by the cruel diplomatic reality. The CCP not only has a bad relationship with the United States, it also has a difficult relationship with the European Union. Xi Jinping does not seem to have many cards to play to save this situation.

On the day before the vote in the European Parliament, the spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Zhao Lijian was still urging the European Parliament to "approve it as soon as possible" and declared that it was in the interests of both China and Europe. On May 17, Premier Li Keqiang of the Chinese Communist Party also held a telephone meeting with the Prime Minister of Italy, saying that the two sides should work together to ensure the early signing and entry into force of the China-EU Investment Agreement.

But the urging of Li Keqiang and others did not yield any results. The European Parliament still voted to freeze this agreement as scheduled.

News (30)

Deputies: The CCP made a wrong calculation

International public opinion believes that the CCP wants to use this agreement to win over European countries and isolate the United States. At the same time, the agreement has also been criticized for lack of human rights norms.

Some analysts said that at this critical moment, as China-EU relations deteriorate, the prospects of the China-EU Comprehensive Investment Agreement cast a shadow over.

Reinhard Buetikofer, a member of the European Parliament of the German Green Party, said that China hopes to reach an investment agreement between Europe and China, but they miscalculated and underestimated the determination of the European Parliament to defend European interests and values.

Lotte Leicht, director of the European Union Division of Human Rights Watch, also stated that Beijing will retaliate and sanction EU members and organizations. But today the European Parliament said that it has had enough of the Chinese Communist Party's bullying and has frozen the EU-China Investment Agreement.

The European Union announced on March 22 that it would impose sanctions on four CCP officials and one entity that violated human rights in Xinjiang. After that, the CCP announced sanctions on European parliamentarians, scholars and think tanks. This move caused strong dissatisfaction with the European Union. At that time, some lawmakers said that the China-EU investment agreement should be blocked.

News (31)

Lithuania's withdrawal from "17+1" may trigger a domino effect



In addition to the freezing of the China-EU Investment Agreement, on May 22, EU member Lithuania announced its withdrawal from the “17+1” cooperation framework, and the Chinese Communist Party’s diplomatic efforts in Europe suffered another blow.

According to the analysis of Nikkei, the consideration for Lithuania's withdrawal from the "17+1" cooperation framework is that as a member of the European Union, it can deal with the CCP more effectively, instead of trapping itself in the pro-communist "17+1" meeting. So I chose to get rid of the influence of the CCP.

This move by Lithuania may affect Estonia, Latvia and other "17+1" member states. The Lithuanian Parliament also passed a resolution on May 20th by a majority of votes, accusing the CCP of committing "genocide" against Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

Another Nikkei report stated that the CCP’s lack of progress in the investment promised by many countries has exacerbated the frustration of Central and Eastern European countries. The Chinese Communist Party China General Nuclear Power Group has agreed to invest and expand a nuclear power plant in Romania, but the plan was shelved for several years. Romania cancelled the deal in 2020 and signed an agreement with the United States.

The report said that at present, enthusiasm for the CCP has cooled in most parts of Central and Eastern Europe. Due to human rights issues and the stagnation of the China-Europe investment agreement, some countries have begun to turn to the United States, which shocked Beijing.

The report also found that a new disagreement between the CCP and many countries is emerging, which the outside world has not seen before.

The United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and other members of the Group of Seven countries, as well as the European Union, India, Australia and other countries are all paying attention to the CCP and keeping a certain distance to observe. Although all eyes are on China, meaningful direct dialogue with China has stagnated in many respects.

According to the report, the CCP’s only response seems to be to double its "wolf war diplomacy." As Xi Jinping seeks a successful re-election, he will not admit diplomatic failure. Therefore, no major reversal of the relationship between the CCP and Western countries is coming. The current stalemate may become the "new normal" of the West's diplomacy with Beijing. Xi Jinping's plight is still great.


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