China

Investigators find secret Chinese biotech laboratory illegally operating in California

Published

4 months ago

August 1, 2023

Officials found an illegal Chinese biotech laboratory being conducted in a warehouse in Reedley, California. The Chinese medical company Prestige Biotech “was the largest creditor of the now defunct med-tech company Universal Meditech and took control of it following bankruptcy. The Chinese-run company did not have a license to operate in California” reports National Review.

Wang Zhaolin, a spokesman for Prestige Biotech, told the San Joaquin Valley Sun that the mice “were genetically engineered to catch and carry the Covid-19 virus,” the newspaper reported. Court documents further showed that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) conducted tests on the more than 800 chemicals found at the site and that over 20 infectious agents were found present, including Hepatitis B and C, streptococcus pneumonia, chlamydia, rubella, and Herpes 1 and 5.

The investigation began in April after a garden hose was illegally attached to the back of the building. Biological agents from the building were destroyed July 7 following a legal abatement process by the Fresno County Public Health Department.

Foreign Desk News reports:

According to reports, the tenant of the illegal lab was Prestige BioTech; a company registered in Nevada and unlicensed for business in California. City officials spoke with the company’s President, Xiuquin Yao, who told officials that Prestige BioTech transferred assets belonging to a defunct company, Universal Meditech Inc. (UMI), to the Reedley warehouse from Fresno after UMI went bankrupt.

Another official from the company, Wang Zhaolin, told investigators the mice were genetically engineered to catch and spread the COVID-19 virus.

The lab had “around 30 refrigerators, operational and non-operational freezers, incubators, and medical testing supplies. Upon searching the building, officials found 800 different chemicals and have yet to identify all of them.”

China

Biden to lift sanctions on China in exchange for third promise to combat fentanyl

Published

3 weeks ago

November 15, 2023

Sara Carter Staff

Reportedly President Joe Biden is making deals with Chinese President Xi Jinping to help improve anti-drug trafficking measures. China is one of the top fentanyl producers and distributors, culminating in a pandemic of fentanyl overdoses and deaths in the United States.

The Biden administration will be lifting sanctions on a Chinese government ministry, in exchange for bolstering anti-drug trafficking measures, Bloomberg reported. “We’re hoping to see some progress on that issue this coming week,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Monday, according to the New York Post. “That could then open the door to further cooperation on other issues where we aren’t just managing things, but we’re actually delivering tangible results.”

The Daily Caller News Foundation noted that should a deal materialize, it will be at least the third time that China has promised to get tough on fentanyl. In 2016, China agreed to increase counter-narcotics operations, and Xi again agreed to launch a crackdown in 2018. Nonetheless, China and Mexico are “the primary source countries for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked directly into the United States,” according to a 2020 DEA intelligence report.

“China remains the primary source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked through international mail and express consignment operations environment, as well as the main source for all fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States.”

President Joe Biden and Xi are meeting for the first time in over a year during this week’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco. Sources familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) will crack down on Chinese companies manufacturing chemical precursors for fentanyl in exchange for the U.S. lifting sanctions on the Ministry of Public Security’s Institute of Forensic Science, which the Commerce Department added to the Entity List in 2020 for “engaging in human rights violations and abuses” in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.