Once again I have to adjust my views on things in the light of evidence and developments.
Over the last four years I have been concerned with the whole Russiagate hoax as well as with the wars being waged by the US neocons as well as various attempted or actual regime change operations, false flags and the like.
All of this is true.
Many of the people involved in what could be called the anti-imperialist tend to be also pro-Chinese.
I kind of went along with this narrative, however recent events - the whole coronavirus thing where I think it is fairly clear that this was a bio weapon that was either accidentally, or - it is possible - on purpose.
But especially recent developments around Hunter Biden’s laptop which has on it compromising material that either the Chinese are aware of, or they were involved in compromising him and making him subject to blackmail.
I just heard the Duran saying, if you have certain proclivities don’t go to Ukraine. Well, that is probably true of China as well.
All of this has brought certain people out of the closet (if that’s where they were - perhaps I just didn’t notice.
People who have the finest anti-imperialist credentials and who I have looked up to.
Take this for example. Hear what George Galloway has to say about China and the Falun Gong.
***
So, according to George, the Falun Gong are “a sect”, so I suppose that is ample justification for sending practitioners to the prison camps and harvesting their organs.
It is a bit like saying that Julian Assange broke the law and so deserves whatever is coming to him.
Need I mention “double standards”?
I’m used to hearing about the evil Dalai Lama from these same leftists. Apparently the Maoist hordes brought vivilisation to the poor undertrodden Tibetans. No one ever asked them - the Chinese invaded and the rest is history.
We also have John Pilger painting China as a victim of a rapacious imperial power - the US.
***
I am a long term admirer of Pilger and his journalistic work. His film “the War on China” is largely correct.
However, if we are to be anti-imperialists shouldn’t we be consistent and talk about imperialism EVERYWHERE.
Once again, I find myself in a battle against binary thinking.
Leftist thinking says one side is evil, therefore the other side is good.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend”
But thinking about all this I don’t think I am going to be for the removal of one imperialist power only to replace it with another.
Similarly, I am not going to embrace the anti-Chinese zealots and the United States along with it.
Anyway, reality trumps. The reality is the US is turning in on itself and quite possibly on the verge of a civil war - wether “soft” or “hot” and is not sufficiently united to take on anyone very much.
It looks as if China has trounced their US, first with a bio weapon and now with quite possibly compromising the Biden’s with the very material that is being released.
“Do our bidding or else”
Which, in my mind makes it imperative that we look at China.
China has, until recently, presented itself as the perfect global citizen.
“Their business is doing business”
Or is it.
****
During the early days of coronavirus in Wuhan I became familiar with what purports to be a secret speech by Chi Haotian back in 2005.
I have done a check on the internet and Chi Haotian is a real person and I can see no reason to suspect this text is not real. I can find no articles by the fact checkers on the web claiming it is false. It seems, as best as I can find out to have been leaked to the Epoch Times and has been reposted many times.
So, I am going to assume that it is 100% genuine.
I found a western biography of comrade Chi and found he was being talked about in the following terms:
Westerners who have interacted with General Chi report that he has a good sense of humor, handles people well, and is well briefed. More than one source reports that he is more intelligent, cosmopolitan, and approachable than other senior PLA officers, such as Zhang Wannian. Yet Chi is also a dedicated party cadre and espouses intense loyalty to the CCP and its ideals.
He reportedly enjoys shooting, horseback riding, swimming, and calligraphy. His wife, Jiang Qingping, is retired from a career as a doctor at the navy general hospital in Beijing.
Well, let’s have a look at what comrade Chi says behind closed doors back in 2005 at a time when we had “excellent” ties with China - just 4 years after China was brought into the World Trade Organisation by signalling it was a good global citizen.
I you want to know why I was so prolific it was I had one glorious day on the Classic version of Blogger. Now I am FORCED to use the new “improved” version where everything takes 2-3 times as long.
I rate this edition of Tru News, so will be bringing the material when I can.
CHINESE WHISTLEBLOWER: ASK DR. FAUCI! HE KNOWS A LOT ABOUT CHINESE VIRUS RESEARCH
Today on TruNews we discuss the war-starting statements by Hong Kong virologist Dr. Li-Meng Yan, concerning the nefarious origins of the coronavirus. She details that the Chinese military not only weaponized the virus, but intentionally deployed it to kill their enemies in the West. We also share China’s response, including a threat against Taiwan and U.S. aircraft carriers.
Rick Wiles, Doc Burkhart, Edward Szall. Airdate 09/17/2020
U.S. intelligence agencies recently increased their knowledge of China’s covert biological weapons program with the help of a defector from the People’s Liberation Army, according to people familiar with the incident.
The defector escaped from China and traveled to Europe, where he is under the protection of a European government security service, according to the sources. The PLA defector believes that Chinese intelligence has penetrated the U.S. government and is therefore wary of cooperating with the CIA and other Western spy agencies.
Still, the defector has provided some information about China’s biological arms program that has reached the U.S. government. No other details of the defection could be learned.
However, the defector is the second person from China to provide information about Chinese biological research with potential weapons applications.
New Delhi: A former Chinese virologist from Hong Kong Dr Li-Meng Yan has claimed that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was developed in a government laboratory in Wuhan and also said that she has evidence to back the claim, in an interview with UK channel ITV.
In the channel’s ‘Loose Women’ segment, Li-Meng maintained that the virus is a “highly mutant” one and that the Wuhan seafood market and the other intermediate hosts of the virus were just a “smokescreen”.
In the latest interview, when asked for her take on negotiations between China and the WHO regarding its investigation into the origin of the coronavirus pandemic, Yan said the two parties will first hold backdoor discussions on the "benefits" for the WHO and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government. She alleged that after the "benefits" are agreed upon, the two parties will sit down and decide "what to tell the people, whether this is really from some bats, even the 'one belt one road' countries, or some poor animals they suddenly caught in Wuhan."
Yan then claimed that she and her team have produced a scientific report that shows the origin of COVID-19 is the "PLA-owned Zhoushan bat coronavirus." She plans to release the report in the near future, and accuses the WHO of "covering up numerous lies for the CCP."
She pointed out that at the end of February, the WHO sent experts, including the controversial Bruce Aylward, who later published a report that praised the Chinese government's handling of the outbreak. However, she claims the WHO "dared not admit Shi Zhengli's RaTG13 virus."
The virologist said Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) scientist Shi Zhengli, also known as "Bat Woman," deliberately posted a paper on Feb. 3 to draw attention to a coronavirus strain identified as RaTG13, which is a strain she and her team discovered in bats in Yunnan in 2013 and that is 96 percent identical to SARS-CoV-2. Yan claims this was an orchestrated attempt to throw investigators off the Zhoushan bat virus strains, while Shi herself claims the fact that RaTG13 is 4 percent different from SARS-CoV-2 exonerates her lab from being the source of the outbreak.
Yan claims the document posted on WHO's website after the visit to Wuhan pointed out the origin of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) is "actually closest to the Zhoushan bat virus." According to Yan, an examination of the genome sequences released by the Chinese government on Jan. 14 also shows that Zhoushan ZC45 and ZXC21 are the closest to SARS-CoV-2 and that they are the "backbone" upon which COVID-19 was constructed.
When asked if the Zhoushan strain is in the PLA's catalog of viruses and if COVID-19 resulted from gain-of-function or other manipulations in the WIV, Yan said the virus could have come from any one of the PLA's numerous labs, such as in Hong Kong, Shanghai, or Harbin. Gain-of-function is when viruses are engineered to become more deadly or transmissible.
Speaking of gain-of-function research, Yan alleged that White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci knows "more than me how they approved those gain-of-function research findings to (fund) these Chinese labs under the CCP's control," possibly in reference to a Newsweek report alleging Fauci's organization funded gain-of-function research on bat coronavirus at the WIV.
In response to the question, do Western scientists prefer to engage in more dangerous research in communist China due to its notoriously lax safety standards? Yan cited the case of Dr. He Jiankui, who performed gene editing on human embryos to supposedly make them immune to HIV. Yan said that although such controversial experiments would never be allowed in Western countries, the Chinese government feigned ignorance and allowed the experiments to continue.
Indeed, a report by the health website STAT indicates government funding may have been used for He's project. She added that reports have surfaced appearing to show links between a number of American scientists and He's experiments.
She said this was illustrative of how dangerous and ethically questionable scientific experiments can be outsourced to China. Yan claimed that she attended a conference in which He gave a presentation and she questioned him on his research.
Yan said an ethos of making a profit without concern for ethical standards or fear of public health consequences allowed for gain-of-function experiments on coronavirus strains. She lamented the resulting pandemic has severely impacted global health and destroyed the world economy.
When asked if the CCP should be held accountable for the pandemic, Yan said that when she worked on vaccines and virus function testing in Chinese labs and carried out virus replication, "We never made just one type of virus we make a lot of strains of virus and stocked them and then later we would test their function, test their characteristics."
Yan emphasized that COVID-19 is not from nature, but rather it is "lab-modified." The virologist then appeared to indicate that other strains may have been released from PLA labs, which vaccines based on the previous versions would be unable to protect against.
….In August, Yan claimed that she and her team had produced a scientific report that shows the origin of COVID-19 is the "PLA-owned Zhoushan bat coronavirus." She stated that she planned to release the report in the near future, and accused the World Health Organization (WHO) of "covering up numerous lies for the CCP."
On Monday, Yan released the report on the data platform Zenodo with the title "Unusual Features of the SARS-CoV-2 Genome Suggesting Sophisticated Laboratory Modification Rather Than Natural Evolution and Delineation of Its Probable Synthetic Route." Zenodo is a general open access repository developed under the European OpenAIRE project and operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), allowing researchers to store data, software, reports, and any research-related tools.
In the abstract, Yan's team pointed out that despite the fact that COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) has claimed the lives of over 900,000 people and devastated the global economy, the origin of the virus remains a mystery and highly controversial. The theory that the virus originated in nature is widely accepted, despite the lack of solid evidence, while suggestions that the disease may have come from a laboratory have been strictly censored from scientific journals, according to the report.
The paper pointed out that the biological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 are not consistent with a naturally occurring zoonotic virus. The researchers assert that the genomic, structural, medical, and literaty evidence presented in the paper strongly contradicts the natural origin theory.
As previously mentioned by Yan, the researchers claim that evidence provided in the report point to the ZC45 and ZXC21 bat coronaviruses as the model or base for the chimera that became SARS-CoV-2.
Furthermore, the authors postulate that the steps needed to produce the virus synthetically in a laboratory can be achieved in "approximately six months." The scientists then call for an independent investigation into China's virology laboratories, particularly gain-of-function research carried out at the Wuhan Institue of Virology (WIV).
In Part 1 of the paper, the scientists provide evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 was subjected to in vitro manipulation. First, it states that the genomic sequence of the virus is strikingly similar to that of a bat coronavirus found by People's Liberation Army (PLA) labs in the Third Military Medical University in Chongqing, China, and the Research Institute for Medicine of Nanjing Command in Nanjing, China.
Second, it shows that the receptor-binding motif (RBM) found in the virus's notorious spike protein is "suspiciously" similar to SARS-CoV from the 2003 SARS outbreak, indicating it was genetically modified. Third, the spike protein of the virus contains a unique furin cleavage site that is "completely absent in this particular class of coronaviruses found in nature," while the rare codons seen in this sequence suggest that it could have been inserted into the genome artificially
Regarding the "Zhoushan bat virus," the team wrote that ZC45 and ZXC2 have the highest sequence identity with SARS-CoV-2. In terms of similarity between ZC45/ZXC2 and SARS-CoV-2, the genome is 97 percent identical, the nucleocapsid protein is 94 percent identical, the membrane protein is 98.6 percent identical, and the S2 portion (2nd half) of the spike protein is 95 percent identical.
The paper emphasized that the Orf8 protein is 94.2 percent identical, while the E protein is 100 percent identical. The Orf8 is highly unusual in coronaviruses, while no other known coronaviruses share 100 percent of the E protein with SARS-CoV-2 besides ZC45/ZXC2.
The study excludes the RaTG13 virus submitted by WIV scientist Shi Zhengli, also known as "Bat Woman," because recent research has shown that its spike protein cannot bind to the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) of two types of horseshoe bats, the alleged natural host, indicating that it may be "fabricated to shift the attention away from ZC45/ZXC2.
In Part 2 of the paper, the researches describe how SARS-CoV-2 could be designed and "created conveniently" in laboratories using the ZC45/ZXC2 viruses as the backbone. The scientists postulate that Step 1 consisted of replacing the RBM with a "designed and possibly optimized RBM" using that of SARS-CoV as a guide to enable it to bind with the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (hACE2).
The authors pointed out that Shi, along with long-term partner and structural biology specialist Fang Li, had successfully modified the RBM in this way. The report estimates that this first phase would take about one and a half months.
Step 2 would consist of engineering a furin cleavage site at the S1/S2 junction of the spike protein. According to the researchers, this short stretch of gene sequence can be "conveniently inserted" using a number of standard cloning techniques, such as "QuikChange Site-Directed PCR60, overlap PCR followed by restriction enzyme digestion and ligation91, or Gibson assembly."
The authors stated that none of these methods would leave any trace in the sequence. This further modification of the spike, including the furin-cleavage site, could be completed in "no more than two weeks," according to the report.
Step 3 could be carried out simultaneously with the previous steps and would consist of acquiring an ORF1b gene that holds the RdRpgene segment from RaBtCoV/4991, a bat coronavirus discovered in 2013. The authors believe that that the Chinese virologists wanted the RdRp protein either to ensure that the resulting chimera would be classified in different groups/sub-lineages than ZC45/ZXC2 in phylogenetic studies or to test antiviral drugs.
Step 4 would involve using reverse genetics to produce the chimera and recover live viruses within the course of two weeks. The authors cited an example of how a Swiss team was able to reconstruct the entire SARS-CoV-2 genome using transformation-assisted recombination in yeast within a single week.
Significantly, this method has been available since 2017 and "would not leave any trace of artificial manipulation in the created viral genome." The paper also mentioned that the WIV has used alternative methods of reverse genetics in the past.
Step 5, and the final step in the process, is to optimize the virus for its hACE2 binding affinity (ability to infect humans) with experiments on live animals. This normally consists of infecting rodents, such as hACE2 transgenic mice (hACE2-mice), with the virus and extracting the highest viral load from 10 to 15 rounds of passage to obtain the strain with the optimal hACE2-binding affinity.
However, the authors of this report postulate that the Chinese scientists failed to use a "proper animal model" when testing the transmissibility of the virus. If they had, the scientists say the highly contentious nature of SARS-CoV-2 would have been obvious and the early claims of "not causing human-to-human transmission" would have not been made at the start of the pandemic.
The researchers suggest that "extensive laboratory-adaption" geared toward augmented transmissibility and lethality "may have driven the virus too far." The scientists believe that the virus might have lost the "capacity to [attenuate] both transmissibility and lethality during its current adaptation in the human population," as evidenced by the lack of attenuation by the virus despite its extensive spread globally and the emergence of a variant with "improved transmissibility."
An international team of scientists will examine the possibility Sars-Cov-2 leaked from a laboratory as part of a comprehensive investigation into the origins of the virus.
The team is being set up as part of the Lancet COVID-19 Commission, a body established in July to “offer practical solutions” to the pandemic and make recommendations on how the next one can be avoided or better defended against.
The team looking at the origins of the virus will be led by Dr Peter Daszak, a British zoologist and leading authority on zoonotic spillover events.
Dr Daszak said yesterday he and his team would “systematically examine every theory” about the origin of the virus, carefully marshalling the scientific evidence for each. ...
New Delhi: China and Pakistan may have allegedly entered a “secret three-year deal” to expand potential bio-warfare capabilities, including running several research projects related to the deadly agent anthrax, according to an Australia based investigative journalist Anthony Klan.
“China’s now infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology has signed the covert deal with Pakistan military’s Defense Science and Technology Organization (DESTO), to collaborate research in “emerging infectious diseas ....
Under the spotlight after Coronavirus savaged the globe, China’s Wuhan lab has now set up operations in Pakistan as part of a broader offensive against India and Western rivals, according to intelligence experts. The secret facility is allegedly handling anthrax-like pathogens which could assist in biological warfare. Anthony Klan reports.
ANTHONY KLAN
EXCLUSIVE
Pakistan and China have entered a secret three-year deal to expand potential bio-warfare capabilities, including running several research projects related to the deadly agent anthrax, according to multiple intelligence sources.
In the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak on Chinese soil, China’s now infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology has signed the covert deal with Pakistan military’s Defense Science and Technology Organization (DESTO), to collaborate research in “emerging infectious diseases” and advance studies on the biological control of transmitted diseases.
According to highly credible intelligence sources, the program is being entirely funded by China and is formally titled the “Collaboration for Emerging Infectious Diseases and Studies on Biological Control of Vector Transmitting Diseases”.
Intelligence sources, including from the Indian subcontinent, have told The Klaxon they have serious concerns about the secret project, which involves China testing biological agents outside its borders in an apparent bid to minimize the “risk of drawing condemnation from the international community”.
“DESTO has been engaged in various dual-use research projects related to anthrax under a covert biological weapons program,” one senior intelligence source said.
The source said China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology had “lent all financial, material and scientific support for the project”.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology has drawn the international spotlight in recent months because the Coronavirus is thought to have originated in Wuhan.
There had been speculation the disease may have emerged from that laboratory, however most experts have since discounted the theory.
The covert China-Pakistan project has conducted “successful soil sampling tests” to isolate Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT), which has a “striking similarity” to Bacillus Anthracis – or anthrax – The Klaxon is told.
“Considering the striking similarity between BT and Bacillus Anthracis, a classified bio-warfare agent, (Pakistan’s) improved know-how in handling the bacteria could enrich a potential offensive biological program,” one source said.
Pakistan had been provided with the reagents for Bacillus Thuringiensis by the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The Wuhan lab was providing “extensive training on manipulation of pathogens and bio-informatics” to Pakistani scientists “to help Pakistan develop its own virus collection database”.
“This could help Pakistan enhance its capability of genetic identification of viruses, access to dangerous microorganisms, and use of genomic tools for research and infectious diseases,” an intelligence source told The Klaxon.
The secret project was “detached from supervision of civilian universities or government health departments in Pakistan” and was structured so as to allow “unspecified” future operations.
The agreement “clearly outlines that the cooperation is not necessarily limited to stated objectives” and “new thematic research to monitor potential new diseases can be added by either party”, a source said.
“DESTO has been engaged in various dual-use research projects related to anthrax under a covert biological weapons program”
One security expert, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Klaxon that India and key western intelligence agencies viewed China’s involvement in the project as being “driven chiefly by its agenda to engage Pakistan against India”.
“China’s keen interest in the project is driven chiefly by its agenda to engage Pakistan against India and to conduct potentially dangerous experiments on foreign soil, without subjecting its own land and people to risk,” the expert said.
The plan was part of a move by Beijing to “designate Pakistan a destination for hazardous bio chemical research” while “evading use of its own territory for such activities”, which “stand the risk of drawing criticism and condemnation from the international community”.
One example was a proposal to test a Coronavirus vaccine, made by Chinese state-owned company Sinopharm, on Pakistani citizens.
The China-Pakistan biological project had already undertaken experiments on the Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus (CCHFV), sources said.
CCHFV is a rapid-onset fever virus that causes death in about 25% of cases and is similar to the Ebola virus.
CCHFV is categorised as a “class-4” microorganism – the highest possible risk category.
Class-4 microorganisms, which also include the Ebola, Marburg and Lassa viruses, are those which can kill humans, can easily travel from one person to another and for which there are no known treatments or vaccines.
Pakistan is allegedly carrying out tests on CCHFV in laboratories which are not equipped to handle Bio-Safety Level-4 diseases.
“Under these circumstances, concerns over manipulation of class 4 pathogens (and the associated) bio-safety issues cannot be overlooked,” an intelligence expert told The Klaxon.
Biological weapons have traditionally been unwieldy as they spread easily and are difficult to target at specific populations.
However the threat of biological warfare has grown considerably in recent years, and experts have warned China is heavily involved in DNA research that could potentially enable a biological weapon to specifically target - or conversely to be ineffective against - people of specific races.
While theories of Coronavirus emerging from the Wuhan Institute of Virology have been largely dismissed by experts, serious concerns have been raised about the safety standards at the Wuhan lab more generally.
In particular, there are concerns the lab is not equipped to handle class-4 diseases, despite claiming to be class-4 compliant.
Intelligence sources told The Klaxon there were concerns the Wuhan Institute of Virology had also established the Institute of Medical Biology in Kunming, in China’s southern Yunnan province.
There were concerns the Kunming facility, which is controlled by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, was also handling class-4 diseases without proper protections, sources said.
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