Jessica Chastain, Daily US Times: The USA just discovered the man who manufactured and sold the COVID-19 coronavirus to China. Dr. Charles Lieber, head of the chemistry and biology department at Harvard University, USA. He was just arrested according to American department sources.
As the world struggles to contain the new virus new speculation from the tiny scientists who believe it may have originated at a research facility not far from the Wuhan fish market. While they say more research needs to be done to find solid proof such labs are known to contain a disease-ridden animal.
Amid the continued spread of the COVID-19 virus, there’s rising speculation the virus could have originated from a government laboratory in Wuhan, China. Rather than a widely held belief that it emerged from the city’s quantum seafood markets. Setting a report published by Chinese scientists a Chinese language newspaper published in Hong Kong, Ming Pao and the British daily The Mirror explains Sunday.
That the Wuhan Center for Disease Control or WHO CDC could have spawned the contagion in Hubei province. The report also raised a possibility that the Wuhan Institute of biology could have leaked the virus while they were carrying out tests involving Chinese horseshoe bats.
Could the coronavirus be a bio-attack?
Against such a backdrop an article published by The Washington Times late last month is garnering attention as it raises the possibility that the disastrous outbreak could be the accidental result of biological weapons research.
This comes as a renowned law professor at China University Beijing Shu Jiang run is known to be missing after publicly condemning Chinese President Xi Jinping, for failing to contain the spread of the virus at an early stage.
Finally, the FBI arrested a professor from Boston University who was in connection with the Chinese University and research lab in Wuhan and was highly paid by China. Now it is very close to clear that COVID-19 coronavirus is a Bio Attack planned and conducted by China.
Details statement about Charles Lieber, here-
Andrew E. Lelling, Attorney, United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Briefing about Harvard professor Charles Lieber
[Andrew E. Lelling, Attorney, United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Briefing about Harvard professor Charles Lieber]
We’re here today to announce three separate cases highlighting the ongoing threat posed by Chinese economic espionage and research theft in the United States. First the arrest today of a Harvard University professor for lying about his participation in a Chinese foreign recruitment program.
Second this morning we have unsealed a separate indictment of a Chinese national working as a scientific researcher at Boston University, who failed to mention on her visa application that she is also a lieutenant with the People’s Liberation
Army.
Finally, this office has indicted another Chinese national for trying to smuggle vials of biological material out of the United States to China and lying about it federal investigators.
That defendant whose entry to the United States had been sponsored by Harvard University was a cancer researcher at a lab at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
So this morning the FBI arrested Dr. Charles Lieber the chair of the department of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University for making false statements regarding his involvement in China’s thousand talents plan and his affiliation with the Wuhan University of Technology.
Charles Lieber’s signed a contract with the Chinese University
The complaint alleges that Dr. Charles Lieber’s signed a contract with the Chinese University in Wuhan and was paid up to $50,000 per month plus up to a $158,000 in living expenses and awarded more than $1.5 million to set up a research lab at the Chinese school and work there on researching nanotechnology.
Dr. Charles Lieber also joined China’s thousand talents plan according to the complaint a Chinese government-run program designed to entice scientists and researchers in the United States to share their research expertise with China.
At the same time, Dr. Charles Lieber was receiving US grant funds for the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health. National Institutes of Health spends up to $39 million a year funding medical research in the United States. Those programs required Dr. Charles Lieber to disclose if he was working with including receiving funding from any foreign power.
When questioned Charles Lieber hid his involvement with the Chinese entities including specifically disavowing any connection to China’s thousand talents plan. Meanwhile, based on the complaint, it appears that China paid Charles Lieber hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years for his involvement with the Chinese entities and his work on research for a Chinese game.
Yanqing Ye J-1 visa application making false statements
Also today a federal grand jury indicted Yanqing Ye, 29, a Chinese national with lying on her J-1 visa application making false statements to Customs and Border Protection conspiracy and being an unregistered agent of the People’s Republic of China.
According to court documents, Yanqing Ye is a lieutenant in the People’s Liberation Army, but she concealed her military connections while employed as a researcher at Boston University’s Department of physics chemistry and biomedical engineering Centre for polymer studies.
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The indictment alleges that a colonel in the People’s Liberation Army and other military officers from the Chinese National University of Defense technology gave Yanqing Ye numerous assignments while she was in the United States, such as conducting research assessing the US military websites and sending documents and information back as China.
In April 2019 a questioned by customs officers at Logan Airport on her way to China. According to the indictment, she lied about her involvement in the involvement with Chinese military projects. A border search of her electronic devices showed that Yanqing Ye had compiled information for the People’s Liberation Army, about two US residents with expertise in robotics and computer science.
Zaosong Zheng sponsored by Harvard University
Lastly, last week this office indicted news Zaosong Zheng, 30, a Chinese national sponsored by Harvard University, who was doing cancer research at Beth is Deaconess Medical Center.
The Zaosong Zheng attempting to smuggle the Beijing vials of biological material along with other research materials that he had stolen from the lab at Beth Israel, where Zaosong Zheng was working on cancer cell research.
Before he boarded his flight customs officers discovered 21 vials of biological material in a sock in his baggage. When confronted by the officers these Zaosong Zheng initially lied and said he was not traveling with any biological or research materials.
Chemistry, nanotechnology, polymer studies, robotics, computer science, biomedical research this is not an accident or a coincidence. This is a small sample of China’s ongoing campaign to siphon off American technology and know-how for a Chinese game.
No country poses a greater counterintelligence threat: FBI director Chris Rea
Recently Attorney General Barr referred to China as this country’s primary rival. Similarly, FBI director Chris Rea recently told Congress that right now no country poses a greater counterintelligence threat to the United States than China.
Through the use of not only traditional intelligence officers but academics researchers, its private citizens China is engaged in a massive long-term campaign to steal US research and technology for its uses.
As demonstrated by these cases on the academic side the Chinese government uses partnerships and exchanges with US schools and research institutions to access cutting-edge research and equipment. Most visiting Chinese academics and researchers are here to work in good faith and US institutions, but some of them are not.
Some numbers have been sent by the Chinese government. Either through the use of money or other means to gather US research and smuggle it back to China.
Because of the sheer scope of this threat a year ago the Attorney General created the China initiative at the US Department of Justice designs prioritize and aggressively prosecute Chinese economic espionage and theft of intellectual property. The cases we are announcing today part of that effort.
Boston is an especially attractive target for this kind of exploitation and universities and research institutions and tech companies in this area must become sensitized to this threat.
Our community benefits greatly from the diversity and talent of international visitors and our partnerships with foreign institutions, especially research institutions. But Chinese economic espionage and theft is a real and daily occurrence that we must begin to confront.
Who is Charles Lieber?
According to Wikipedia, Charles M. Lieber (born 1959) is an American chemist and pioneer in nanoscience and nanotechnology. In 2011, Charles Lieber was named by Thomson Reuters as the leading chemist in the world for the decade 2000-2010 based on the impact of his scientific publications.
He is known for his contributions to the synthesis, assembly and characterization of nanoscale materials and nanodevices, the application of nanoelectronic devices in biology, and as a mentor to numerous leaders in nanoscience.
No Link Between Harvard Scientist Charles Lieber and COVID-19 coronavirus: Fact Check
Amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, a conspiracy theory is viral on social media. A message with a video clip is circulating on Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp claiming that US authorities have arrested Dr. Charles Lieber, a Harvard professor, for creating COVID-19 coronavirus and selling it to China.
Is it true that federal agents arrested Harvard professor Charles Lieber for creating the COVID-19 coronavirus? Did Charles Lieber and two Chinese students get arrested for creating the virus?
No. Lieber, a nanoscientist, was charged for lying about his participation in a Chinese recruitment program and his affiliation with a Chinese university. He is not accused of being a spy and has no connection to the new COVID-19 coronavirus. Source: factcheck.org
Charging Documents:
Affidavit in support of the application for criminal complaint download here
Finally, the FBI arrested a professor from Boston University who was in connection with Chinese
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