Michel Barnier, chief Brexit negotiator for the EU put his personal seal-of-approval onto the Wuhan laboratory at the centre of international concerns over the COVID-19 outbreak, it has emerged.
The laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology was set up in 2004 as a joint French and Chinese enterprise designed to conduct research into combatting the original SARS virus.
Michel Barnier was the French foreign minister at the time within Jacque Chirac’s government and personally gave the go-ahead for the venture in spite of countless warnings from western intelligence agencies who, even then, were cautioning against the move amid concerns that the French could lose control of the project and the facility would end up being used by the Chinese government to develop biochemical weapons and also function a point of espionage against the French government.
Despite these warnings, the venture was personally approved by Barnier despite harsh warnings from diplomatic and security advisers. In fact, these warnings appeared to come true as reports given in 2015 by the French security services stated that they had essentially lost control of the project and had been ousted by the Chinese.
In 2018, the Washington Post published information acquired from unreleased diplomatic cables which state US scientists were sent on multiple visits to the Wuhan research facility.
The scientists subsequently sent back a series of warnings to Washington about the activity being carried out within the laboratory. The Washington Post column states that the officials had series reservations about safety and management protocols within the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The cables also show that the scientists actually appealed to the US government for further assistance after carrying out an assessment of the laboratory. In fact, the team held specific concerns about the lab’s research on bat coronaviruses and specifically warned that weaknesses in safety and biosecurity in the projects could risk a new SARS pandemic.
The Washington Post states the cables went on to fuel more discussions in the US government about whether the Wuhan Institute of Virology or possibly even another lab in Wuhan could have been the source of the virus behind the current pandemic.
Nothing was done and ultimately by the time anyone realised there was a problem then the pandemic was underway.
Of course, an enquiry into the origins of COVID-19 is still progressing. However, Michael Barnier’s involvement in establishing the project must surely be examined by western media due to the lack-of-security and safety protocols within the laboratory and the suspicious nature of the experiments themselves.
The broader question here, of course, is why the current Brexit negotiator for the EU was approving dangerous projects in the Wuhan province when all western intelligence agencies were specifically warning against it. Indeed, the nature of the research carried out by the Wuhan Institute of Virology into Coronaviruses must now be subject to an enquiry.
