The coronavirus pandemic continued to wreak havoc on America during Donald Trump’s administration last year, and failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton just had to weigh in. She blamed the president, lambasting him as racist when he called the virus “the China Flu” and suggested the possibility that the virus might have originated in a Chinese lab. However, there is more to this story.
Apparently, just over a decade prior to this, then-Secretary of State Clinton seemed to have a much different take on China and on this particular lab.
The Details
According to a leaked State Department cable in 2009, Clinton was concerned about the Wuhan Institute of Virology when it had been newly accredited with biosafety level 4 clearance, claiming that this new designation could lead to a “proliferation of biological weapons.”
The cable was obtained via WikiLeaks and ultimately unearthed by a group called Human Events, and apparently it had been sent in June 2009 to the member nations of the Australian Group plenary meeting in Paris, scheduled for September 21st through the 25th.
According to their website, the Australia Group is an informal forum of countries that is “seeking to ensure that exports never contribute to the development of biological or chemical weapons.”
At the beginning of the cable, Clinton stated, “We believe that it is important that we focus on emerging chemical and biological technologies and trends in the trade of CBW-related threats and goods as well. Later, they specifically addressed France, according to Clinton, who wrote the following:
“The U.S. believes participants would absolutely benefit from hearing about your experiences assisting the Chinese with setting up a Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory located at the Wuhan Institute of Virology from the export control and intangible technology transfer perspectives. We are particularly interested in learning how China plans to vet any of their incoming foreign researchers from countries where there is a concern of biological weapons proliferating.”
In 2003, the WIV was approved by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in order to begin constructing their BSL-4 lab. They completed the project in 2014 and they had significant help from France along the way.
Earlier in the cable, Clinton voiced concerns to the group regarding China’s involvement in biological weapons proliferation in general. She requested the Australian delegation to share what they knew about China’s Institutes of Biological Products, and she wanted them to use “overhead imagery analysis, if possible” and share their perception of the “CBW proliferation activities by these Chinese entities.”
However, fast forward to nearly 11 years later, and in March 2020 Hillary denounces President Trump as racist when he refers to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” due to where the illness had originated. Clinton had no problem turning the tables then.
“The president keeps turning to racist rhetoric to distract from his failures to take COVID-19 seriously early on, make the tests widely available, and adequately prepare this country for a period of crisis,” she tweeted. “Don’t let your family and friends fall for it, and don’t fall for it yourself.”
Well, surprise, surprise, but it wasn’t long after Clinton’s tweet was posted that the state-run Chinese media took it and ran with it, lauding it as a defense of the truth.
Now, here we are over a year later, and the theory that this virus originated from a virus is picking up significant steam.
What do you think about Hillary’s latest flip-flop?