Scientists in China discussed weaponising coronavirus in 2015: Report

A document written by Chinese scientists and health officials before the pandemic in 2015 states that SARS coronaviruses were a “new era of genetic weapons” that could be artificially manipulated into an emerging human disease virus, then weaponised and unleashed, reported Weekend Australian.

According to news agency ANI, The paper titled The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons suggested that World War Three would be fought with biological weapons. The document revealed that Chinese military scientists were discussing the weaponisation of SARS coronaviruses five years before the Covid-19 pandemic. The report by Weekend Australian was published in news.com.au.

Peter Jennings, the executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), told news.com.au that the document is as close to a “smoking gun” as we’ve got.

“I think this is significant because it clearly shows that Chinese scientists were thinking about military application for different strains of the coronavirus and thinking about how it could be deployed,” said Jennings.

“It begins to firm up the possibility that what we have here is the accidental release of a pathogen for military use,” added Mr Jennings.

He also said that the document may explain why China has been so reluctant for outside investigations into the origins of Covid.

According to the article published on news.com.au, among the 18 listed authors of the document are People’s Liberation Army scientists and weapons experts.

Robert Potter, a cyber security specialist who analyses leaked Chinese government documents was asked by The Australian to verify the paper. He says the document definitely isn’t fake. “We reached a high confidence conclusion that it was genuine … It’s not fake but it’s up to someone else to interpret how serious it is,” Potter told news.com.au.

“It emerged in the last few years … they (China) will almost certainly try to remove it now it’s been covered.”

Potter says it isn’t unusual to see Chinese research papers discussing areas that they’re behind on and need to make progress in and that doesn’t necessarily equate to action being taken, the article stated.