The cable, which was previously obtained by WikiLeaks, was sent in June 2009 to all embassies in member nations of the Australia Group, a group concerned with preventing the proliferation of deadly weapons.
In the cable, Clinton says “We believe it is important to focus on emerging chemical and biological technologies, trends in the trade of CBW-related (chemical and biological weapons) goods and threats.”
Summit.news reports: Clinton specifically addressed French representatives, writing “The U.S. believes participants would benefit from hearing about your experiences assisting China in setting up a Biosafety Level-4 (BSL-4) laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology from the export control and intangible technology transfer perspectives.”
“We are particularly interested to know how China plans to vet incoming foreign researchers from countries of biological weapons proliferation concern,” Clinton added.
The cable continued “The U.S. believes AG members would be interested in any information you can share related to China and North Korea, specifically information related to:
- China’s Institutes of Biological Products (locations in Beijing and Wuhan), to include overhead imagery analysis, if possible.
- Your perceptions of the CBW proliferation activities by Chinese entities.
- Your perceptions of Chinese government efforts to enforce its export control rules.”
The cable is yet another reminder that the Wuhan lab was thought to be a facility being set up by China to conduct weapons research.
As The Washington Post noted in a report this week, it is clear that the Chinese military was conducting classified work at the lab.
Another former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, has also repeatedly asserted that China is using the lab for bioweapons research.
“What I can say for sure is this: we know that they were engaged in efforts connected to the People’s Liberation Army inside of that laboratory, so military activity being performed alongside what they claimed was just good old civilian research,” Pompeo earlier this month:
“They refuse to tell us what it was, they refuse to describe the nature of either of those, they refused to allow access to the World Health Organization when it tried to get in there,” Pompeo further urged.
“That virology lab is still up and running. It’s still probably conducting the same kinds of research it was conducting that may have well led to this virus escaping from that laboratory,” Pompeo emphasised.
Despite Clinton’s previous warnings concerning the Wuhan lab, she has repeatedly accused those pointing fingers at the Institute, mainly Trump, of using using “racist rhetoric”:
