Documents reveal Canadian virologists’ work with PLA

NEWS AND ANALYSIS:

Declassified Canadian government documents reveal that two China-born researchers at a high-security virus laboratory in Winnipeg worked secretly with China’s People’s Liberation Army and provided deadly virus samples to China.

The two scientists, Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng, who are a married couple, supplied Ebola and Nipah virus samples to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in March 2019 and also were involved in bat virus research. The WIV is regarded by some U.S. intelligence agencies as a likely source for the origin for the COVID-19 pandemic that began eight months later.

The disclosures were contained more than 600 pages of government documents released as part of a parliamentary inquiry into the couple’s activities linked to China.

Investigators from the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service stated that they found Chinese records showing Dr. Qui worked with the WIV in 2019 on a “bat filovirus project.” The goal was to “use reverse genetics to create synthetic virus strains,” the document said.

Two other partially declassified CSIS documents say that Dr. Qui and her husband Dr. Cheng co-authored a research paper with scientists from the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, China’s main research center for biological weapons. The academy is “the highest medical research institution of the People’s Liberation Army of the People’s Republic of China and has offensive chemical and biological weapons capabilities,” the Canadian investigators said.

China is engaged in a national program to support military modernization by transforming basic civil research into military applications, the report said.

The report stated that when an investigator told Ms. Qui that collaboration with the Chinese military could be used for nefarious purposes, she responded: “That’s true. … I know that. I just didn’t make that connection.” Dr. Qui, who held a “secret” security clearance, also insisted the collaborations with China were for medical treatment and could not be used for biological weapons.

A second report contends that Dr. Cheng was involved in an incident in which a shipment of biological samples addressed to him were falsely labeled as kitchen utensils.

“Mr. Cheng believes the materials shipped were low-risk biological materials and it was the Chinese shipping broker who purposely labeled them incorrectly in order to bypass rules and paperwork,” the report said.

Dr. Qui was linked to China’s “Thousand Talents Program” which recruited many U.S. and foreign scientists and experts for both civilian and military development.

The CSIS said biotechnology research and development were central to the program.

Dr. Qui also traveled to the WIV in 2017 to train Chinese scientists as part of the talents program.

As part of the collaboration with WIV, Dr. Qui agreed to send samples of the Ebola and Nipah viruses to the WIV, the CSIS report said. Both are deadly pathogens.

As a result of her contributions to China, the Academy of Military Medical Science nominated Dr. Qui for an award in 2016 for what the report said was based on how she “cooperated in a timely manner with experts from the AMMS.”

The release of the documents followed a lengthy debate in the Canadian legislature. The current administration of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau initially sought to block the publication of the material with a lawsuit seeking to keep the records hidden. Parliament voted to release the material that was made public last week.

The couple were removed from the National Microbiology Laboratory where they worked in the summer of 2019 and fired in January 2021 following an investigation.

Ms. Qui and Mr. Cheng could not be reached for comment. Canadian news reports said the couple moved to China after being fired.

Air Force to test hypersonic missile near Guam

The Air Force’s new hypersonic missile, the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), is set to be tested from a B-52 bomber in the Indo-Pacific in an exercise that analysts also serves as a strategic message to China.

Air Force images of the new missile, known as the AGM-183A, showed it placed underneath the wing of a B-52 at Anderson Air Force Base on Guam on Feb. 27.

This week the Air Force published an air closure warning bulletin regarding a weapons test for the central Pacific between March 5 and March 10, Air and Space Force Magazine reported. The target zone for the missile test is an area located near the military’s Kwajalein Atoll test area.

If the test has taken place, the Air Force has yet to state so publicly.

The magazine noted that the flight distance from Anderson AFB to the atoll is about 2,500 miles and would fit with the range of the new ARRW.

The military is rushing to develop more U.S. hypersonic missiles, which can travel faster than five times the speed of sound and can maneuver to avoid missile defenses. Both China and Russia have deployed their own hypersonic missiles, which reportedly can strike targets at any location on the globe in less than 30 minutes.

Asked if the test is meant as a message to China, a Pentagon official told the magazine: “They can interpret this any way they want, … but you would expect us to derive as much value from one of these [events] as we possibly can.”

The ARRW is a boosted glider powered by a missile engine and can reach hypersonic speeds and then maneuver to its target. The high speed and maneuverability require advanced technology and materials to withstand the heat generated by the travel.

The Pentagon shunned the development of hypersonic missiles despite intelligence indicating both Beijing and Moscow were developing the weapons to defeat U.S. missile defenses. Defense policymakers have failed to explain in congressional testimony why the Pentagon over the past decade did not to pursue hypersonic missiles.

U.S. strategic thinking has been focused on missile defenses rather than offensive strike missiles, a policy that appears to be changing in favor of offensive hypersonic missiles.

“The Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) program combines critical high-speed flight technologies and accelerates the weaponization of air-to-ground hypersonic strike capabilities for the U.S. Air Force,” Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer, said on its website.

China announces fourth aircraft carrier

China’s military will unveil details of its fourth aircraft carrier in the coming weeks, a People’s Liberation Army political commissar disclosed according to state media in China. The PLA’s Yuan Huawhi also said Beijing will soon reveal if the next carrier will be nuclear-powered.

Mr. Yuan made the comments at a session of the Chinese Communist Party’s rubber-stamp parliament that is meeting this week.
Asked about the latest carrier, Mr. Yuan told a reporter, “[We] will tell you soon,” adding that there are no delays in aircraft carrier technology development and that work on the latest carrier is progressing smoothly, the state-affiliated Global Times news website reported.

Mr. Yuan insisted the Chinese aircraft carrier program is not aimed at competing with the United States, but is being built to bolster national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

China’s four carriers are considered a rapid advancement of the difficult task of designing and operating aircraft from moving ships, an American military specialty that took the Navy 100 years to perfect.

China’s navy has been able to make similar advances in carrier power projection in just over a decade and skipped a generation of steam-power catapult technology by adopting advanced electromagnetic aircraft launch systems instead.

China’s first carrier, the Liaoning, was purchased and partially built from Ukraine. Its second carrier, the Shandong, was built domestically and used recently for what defense officials say were intimidating military exercises near Taiwan. Both use ski-jump-style designs that help launch aircraft.

The third carrier is the Fujian, launched in 2022, which is currently preparing for sea trials. It boasts an electromagnetic launch system and flat deck, like U.S. aircraft carriers.

Despite his earlier comment about not competing with the United States, Mr. Yuan told reporters that China’s military is capable of dealing with the American carriers that deploy regularly to the Indo-Pacific, including in disputed waters claimed by China.

“Trust us, we can,” he said. “We don’t just deal with aircraft carriers. We also deal with [potential threats] comprehensively.”

The Global Times, quoting Chinese military experts, said Beijing will eventually build more aircraft carriers as it develops into a deep-water naval power.

China’s fourth carrier could be nuclear-powered, allowing for longer deployment times and further operating distance.
The carrier deployment appears to be part of China’s plan for what U.S. officials say is an effort to replace the United States as the world’s sole superpower.

• Contact Bill Gertz on X at @BillGertz.