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Illegal California lab with vials of deadly viruses existed because of gaps in regulation, U.S. House Panel on China says
Tim Sheehan, Gillian Brassil
Thu, November 16, 2023 at 9:15 a.m. MYT·6 min read
A congressional committee investigating Chinese communist influence blames gaps in the U.S. regulatory framework for allowing a “wanted fugitive” to set up a clandestine biological laboratory in Reedley, California last year.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control was also faulted by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party for its “baffling” and “unacceptable” response to Reedley city officials who sought the agency’s help identifying thousands of vials of suspected contagions inside the warehouse.
The committee’s conclusions were included in a 41-page report released Wednesday in Washington, D.C. The report specifically criticizes the Centers for Disease Control for refusing to test the biological material found in refrigerators and freezers at the Reedley site, instead relying on labels on containers to determine that the lab contained samples of various infectious viruses, bacteria and parasites that include chlamydia, streptococcus, hepatitis B and C, HIV, rubella, malaria and COVID-19.
The report states that “CDC’s refusal to test left local officials unable to assess the danger to the … Reedley community or inform the community about what steps, if any, it should take to protect public safety.”
The report is based on evidence obtained through a subpoena served on the city of Reedley in September and subsequent interviews by investigators. It amounts to thousands of pages of documents seized from the warehouse where Universal Meditech Inc. set up shop on I Street in downtown Reedley, hundreds of photographs taken inside the warehouse, and hours of video.
“This evidence, alongside interviews of local officials and other investigative steps, revealed troubling gaps in federal pathogen safeguards,” the report states. “Those gaps allowed a wanted fugitive from Canada, who is a (People’s Republic of China) national who had previously stolen millions of dollars of American intellectual property, to operate an illegal facility” in Reedley.
The alleged operator of the lab, Jia Bei Zhu, was arrested in October in Reedley on federal charges of manufacturing and distributing illegal COVID-19 test kits and lying to federal investigators. He remains in custody in the Fresno County Jail. He is expected to have a court hearing Thursday at the U.S. District Courthouse in Fresno, where his attorney Anthony Capozzi said Zhu will plead not guilty when a grand jury indictment is issued.
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