“They’re not bad folks” was amongst the many quotes Biden said on the campaign trail to downplay the emerging global threat China poses, prompting backlash from Democrats and Republicans alike. Even as the novel coronavirus spread like wildfire across the globe, sensitive Democrats and Biden adamantly refused to reference any mention of its origins; Wuhan or China.
Australian media outlet The Weekend Australian exclusively reported just what those “not bad folks” are capable of. The document is titled “The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons” revealed scientists of the Chinese military discussed weaponizing SARS coronaviruses and had been obtained by the United States Government:
The Weekend Australian reports, “The document, written by People’s Liberation Army scientists and senior Chinese public health officials in 2015, was obtained by the US State Department as it conducted an investigation into the origins of COVID-19.” In it, “The paper describes SARS – coronaviruses as heralding a ‘new era of genetic weapons’ and says they can be ‘artificially manipulated into an emerging human disease virus, then weaponized and unleashed in a way never seen before.”
The Australian has verified the authenticity of the paper through digital forensics and reports of the document:
Some of China’s senior public health and military figures are listed among the 18 authors of the document, including the former deputy director of China’s Bureau of Epidemic Prevention, Li Feng. Ten of the authors are scientists and weapons experts affiliated with the Air Force Medical University in Xi’an, ranked “very high-risk” for its level of defense research, including its work on medical and psychological sciences, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Defense Universities Tracker.
The Air Force Medical University, also known as the Fourth Medical University, was placed under the command of the PLA under President Xi Jinping’s military reforms in 2017. The editor-in-chief of the paper, Xu Dezhong, reported to the top leadership of the Chinese Military Commission and Ministry of Health during the SARS epidemic of 2003, briefing them 24 times and preparing three reports, according to his online biography.
He also held the position of professor and doctoral supervisor in the Air Force Medical University’s Military Epidemiology Department. Other authors include Zhang Jiangxia and Zhao Ningning, who both served as experiment scientists in the same department.