INTERNATIONAL: China urges the United States to open up its bio-labs in Ukraine for independent investigations by international experts and stop standing alone in obstructing the establishment of a Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) verification mechanism, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian at a regular press conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
Russia has lately disclosed some U.S. research plans in bio-labs in Ukraine. One of them, the UP-4 project, studies the possibility of the spread of avian viruses through migrating birds. The R-781 project considers bats as carriers of pathogens that can be transmitted to humans. Another project code-named UP-8 is aimed at studying the Congo-Crimean hemorrhagic fever virus and hantaviruses.
The evidence revealed by Russia shows that the U.S. is trying to obtain means of releasing biological chemical weapons by experimenting on the relations between migrating birds and the spread of viruses. It also shows that the U.S. and some other Western countries are gathering and transferring in a planned manner biological samples in Ukraine and may have conducted biological research targeting different ethnic populations.
Zhao has also said ; "When confronted with evidence revealed by Russia, the U.S. is trying to muddle through by simply dismissing the concerns as 'disinformation'. Is this convincing at all? If the U.S. wants to prove its innocence, it needs to give a full account of its bio-military activities in a responsible manner. We welcome a joint assessment of the documents provided by Russia under the framework of the UN and the BWC. More importantly, we call on the U.S. to open up these bio-labs for independent investigations by international experts and stop standing alone in obstructing the establishment of a BWC verification mechanism.”
In response to questions on information about the U.S. embassy in Ukraine deleting certain documents from its website, Zhao has said it is the U.S. side that owes the world a full explanation and clarification.
He has pointed out that the concerns of the international community about U.S.'s biological labs in Ukraine boil down to what the U.S. has done and what has been hidden from the public. Why is the U.S. the only party that is opposed to establishing a Biological Weapons Convention verification regime?
