Intelligence officials in France warned U.S. State Department officials in 2015 that communist China planned to cease its collaboration agreement at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to a former State Department COVID-19 investigator.
Former State Department official David Asher indicated to the Daily Caller that the U.S. government was given preliminary information regarding China’s move to stop working with France at the lab. In 2004, France and China launched the project, which continual evidence indicates could be the originating area of COVID-19.
Asher said France was formally “kicked out” of the lab in 2017, which resulted in foreign officials contacting the U.S. to let officials know. In January 2021, prior to the Biden administration assuming office, the State Department alleged that the lab had been used by China military research for classified research since at least 2017.
“The Chinese basically sucked State into its honey pot operation to gain access to U.S. technology, knowledge, and material support. Classic. Just as they have done in every sector,” the investigator said.
Still, the U.S. lent a major hand to the lab. According to The U.S. Agency for International Development, it funneled $1.1 million to EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S. non-profit, from October 2019 to May 2019 for a sub-agreement signed with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency was a subcontractor of the lab and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) sent $600,000 in grants to the Wuhan lab from 2014 to 2019.
A 2018 State Department cable outlined how France determined the lab would be an accessible and transparent operation, but estimation does not coincide with China’s recent announcement it will not permit the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate the lab. The country also prohibited WHO from gaining access to documentation and records being held at the lab.
French officials were in support of working with China, and yet some French defense experts were skeptical, as reported by Le Figaro, a newspaper in France. France put aside a whopping $1 million euros every year for five years to give to the lab, then-French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said at a 2017 ceremony. Scientists in the country even trained Chinese workers.
While the plan was for France to supervise, Le Figaro reported that China took over the lab and stopped collaborating. However, French workers stayed longer than five years.
As evidence mounts supporting the coronavirus lab-leak theory, U.S. lawmakers are demanding answers. Dr. Anthony Fauci claimed in June he has “always” been open to the theory, and yet he has also refuted it for months. China said it was “shocked” WHO is investigating the theory.