According to a leading regional expert, the Biden administration is “determined not to let us know” about the origins of the coronavirus and its possible leak from a U.S.-funded lab in China.
Gordon Chang, a veteran China analyst, said in an interview with Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) published on Wednesday that “it could take years” for Americans to learn China’s full role in leaking the coronavirus that caused a global shutdown and millions of deaths.
Chang told Blackburn, “Unfortunately, the Biden administration is determined not to tell us” what exactly Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institutes of Health were funding in China. “I believe it’s because Dr. Anthony Fauci evaded the 2014 ban on federal funding of gain of function research,” a scientific technique in which a virus is made more lethal so that scientists can study it. This practice is prohibited in the United States due to its inherent danger.” Therefore, [Fauci] financed the research in China, specifically at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
“Eventually, the American people will learn the truth, but it may take years,” Chang said, referring to the Biden administration’s efforts to downplay American funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Chinese lab at the center of the COVID leak. Chang believes that the Biden administration’s efforts to shield Fauci from criticism are to blame for the ambiguity surrounding the nature of America’s role in supporting this research.
Chang added that Fauci likely lied to Congress when he stated that his agency did not fund so-called gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Chang said, about Fauci’s denial before the Senate that the NIH was funding gain of function research in China, “either [Fauci] didn’t know what his institute was doing or he committed perjury twice last year.” “I believe he had to know what was going on for a variety of reasons, and thus he committed perjury. And the Department of Justice appears unconcerned.”
A Senate Republican report concluded that a laboratory leak is the most likely cause of the pandemic, lending credence to Chang’s assertions. The funding of the Wuhan Institute by the United States has become a point of contention in Congress and among watchdog groups, urging lawmakers to cease funding foreign laboratories such as the one in China. On Monday, a coalition of organizations urged the House and Senate appropriations committees to deny additional funding for these foreign labs, which are also located in Russia and other hostile nations to the United States.
Chang also criticized the Biden administration for its lackadaisical response to a wave of protests in China centered on the Communist regime’s harsh coronavirus restrictions. As Chinese citizens revolt against their oppressive government, the administration has largely remained silent.
Chang told Blackburn that the Biden administration’s response to these protests was “extremely disheartening.” “If the United States does not defend freedom and democracy, no one else will. However, this phenomenon is observed globally, not just in China, and it has implications for national security.”