House panel seeks release of COVID-19 origin secrets

NEWS AND ANALYSIS:

Two classified State Department documents made public in part by a House subcommittee suggest that Chinese President Xi Jinping was involved in covering up the deadly COVID-19 outbreak.

The heavily censored reports sent from Taiwan to the State Department in July and August 2020 also provide new clues to the Chinese military’s role at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a location that at least two U.S. intelligence agencies believe was the origin of the pandemic.

The redacted State Department reports, once labeled “secret/sensitive” and “secret/noforn” (no foreign dissemination) — were made public by the House Government Oversight select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic. Subcommittee Chairman Brad Wenstrup has written to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday asking that the full contents of the documents be made public.

“The American people deserve to see the information that is hidden under these redactions,” said Mr. Wenstrup, Ohio Republican.

Mr. Wenstrup said the documents, released to the subcommittee after an earlier release to an open government group, are credible and “highly pertinent” to the panel’s investigation of the origin of the pandemic.

Headings on the documents suggest that “COVID-19 originated from a lab-related accident in Wuhan, China,” Mr. Wenstrup said. The documents also appear to show that the ruling Chinese Communist Party “acted to prevent, and in fact obstructed, a fulsome investigation into these matters.”

One document appears to show “a seamless relationship between the WIV and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army,” Mr. Wenstrup said.

The July 2020 document was sent from the American Institute in Taiwan, the U.S. diplomatic de facto embassy in Taipei, to State Department headquarters under the subject “PRC central government — not local officials — responsible for the coronavirus cover-up,” using the abbreviation for People’s Republic of China.

The document then states in subheadings over blacked-out sections that “Beijing knew earlier than they admit” about the disease outbreak.

Another subheading states that a leaked Chinese directive restricted the disclosure of virus information and samples.

A third subhead states that Mr. Xi “lied to obfuscate his role in the cover-up.” Yet another states that the initial disease outbreak in Wuhan could have been contained “if Beijing had not covered it up.”

The second document is dated Aug. 4, 2020, and reveals that a Chinese military contractor helped build the Wuhan Institute of Virology and that the Chinese military maintained a presence at the laboratory after its completion. The military also operated what the document said were “shadow labs” at the institute and there were Wuhan Institute of Virology personnel with possible ties to the military.

The State Department in a January 2021 fact sheet stated that secret Chinese military animal experiments and other military-related activities were carried out at the institute.

Wuhan Institute of Virology representatives have denied the Chinese military conducted research at the institute, which partnered with several U.S. virus researchers, including EcoHealth Alliance, the New York-based nonprofit that the select subcommittee last week charged was engaged in hiding dangerous “gain of function” virus research with the institute.

The redacted document identified key Chinese military biological defense research under two organizations, the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and the Institute of Chemical Defense, identified in the document as ICD.

Later, the document stated that the Chinese military ICD “may be linked to WIV through CAS [the China Academy of Sciences] and 863 Program.”

The 863 Program is a state-run high-technology development program.

Mr. Wenstrup said in his letter to Mr. Blinken that the full contents of the documents should be declassified so “the American people have a more complete picture of the government’s evidence regarding the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.” The subcommittee also wants the State Department to provide a briefing to its investigators in the new week.

The panel is looking into federal funding for gain-of-function virus research and executive branch communications on the pandemic. A State Department spokesman said the department does not comment on communications with Congress.

“We will continue to work closely with the committee as they address the COVID-19 pandemic,” the spokesman said.

War College holds meeting on ’woke’ feminism

The Naval War College is getting criticism from some Navy veterans over a recent academic symposium at the Rhode Island school focusing on feminist theory in international relations. Last week the college held its 10th annual symposium on “women, peace and security.”

“As a reminder student attendance at this event is required,” said Saira Yamin, an organizer of the symposium, a Naval War College professor and chair of the “Women, Peace, and Security” department, touting in an email to students and staff what she said was an exciting list of speakers and topics for this year’s conference.

One topic was “From Iron Girls to Pretty Lady Cadre: The Impact of China’s Gender Exclusionary Policy and Norms upon U.S.-China Strategic Competition.”

The paper by two Georgetown University presenters “explores how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s gender politics have evolved and how they affect China’s national security,” an outline of the paper stated.

“The CCP’s views on women’s roles and feminism have changed in response to political, economic, and social contexts,” the outline said. “The CCP adopted a radical feminist approach during the revolution, highlighting women within its military as ‘iron girls’; co-equal to their male counterparts, but later shifted to a more conservative stance that emphasized traditional gender norms.”

The outline said the party’s policy has been influenced by “women’s involvement in revolutionary activities,” but that females in both the Chinese Communist Party and the nation’s army suffered “discrimination and marginalization.”

“Although women have gained more opportunities over time, they still face obstacles to reaching higher leadership positions, often being assigned to token roles as ‘pretty lady cadre,’” the summary said.

Another session on international relations theory focused on “constructivism and feminism,” according to an outline of that session.

“Constructivism reminds us to ask not just what we think something means, but how other people in other contexts might understand its meaning and how that matters for our strategic thinking,” the outline states. “Feminism questions the role of assumptions about gender (and often other ideas like race, class and nationality) in how various actors try to understand how the world works and why things happen the way they do.”

Some former Navy officers questioned the utility of holding what they called a “woke” conference and asked how these topics have any role in understanding naval warfare.

Lt. Cmdr. Pete Pagano, a Naval War College spokesman, referred to a school news release when asked about the controversy. The release quoted Rear Adm. Pete Garvin, the college’s president, as saying that including “the gender perspective into strategic plans and operations can be used to better understand hybrid threats.”

The mission statement of the War College identified the goal of the institution as delivering excellence in education, research and outreach.

“Graduates must possess the mental strength and flexibility to out-think competitors in all domains,” the mission statement says. “The U.S. Naval War College deepens the intellectual engagement of naval, joint, interagency, and international leaders and warriors to achieve that cognitive advantage.”

China still stealing intellectual property, U.S. says

China is continuing to engage in theft of American intellectual property, or IP, a Justice Department official told a House hearing this week.

Josh Goldfoot, deputy assistant attorney general in the criminal division, told a House Judiciary subcommittee that a task force was set up last year to counter IP theft. The Disruptive Technology Strike Force recently charged several former company employees in five cases of stealing confidential and proprietary information related to sensitive technology for the purpose of sending it to China.

A sixth case involved a person seeking to obtain U.S. technology on behalf of Chinese end users.

In March, China-based Yilong Shao was indicted on charges of conspiring to send millions of dollars worth of proprietary U.S. technology used in electric car batteries to China. That same month, Chinese national Linwei Ding was arrested on suspicion of stealing files from Google on artificial intelligence technology.

Other cases involved people who allegedly stole missile-detection technology, advanced manufacturing software and autonomous vehicle technology they had planned to send to China.

The Strike Force works with the Commerce Department to stem the flow of U.S. technology to China, a flow that in 2018 was estimated to range from $200 billion to $600 billion in value annually. The force brings together experts from throughout government who “target illicit actors, strengthen supply chains and protect critical technological assets from being acquired or used by nation-state adversaries,” Mr. Goldfoot told the hearing.

“The Strike Force combats export control and sanctions violations, smuggling and trade offenses related to the unlawful transfer of sensitive information, goods and military-grade technology to nation-state adversaries,” he added.

• Contact Bill Gertz on X @BillGertz.

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.