We talking about the reincarnated version of the Andromeda strain or a press release trying to inspire panic.
Those ‘70s disaster movies have turned me dead set against alarm-quashing officials. Jaws, Towering Inferno, Pirhana, Avalanche, Volcano, you name it. Always somebody is poopoohing the threat until it’s too late. So I’m inclined to believe the Chinese are doing gain of function in outer space. That way it doesn’t spread to their population, and they can Andromeda Strain those foolish westerners as payback for the Opium War and the Century of Humiliation.