Chinese Lab’s Purchase of US Land for Primate Breeding Facility Draws Scrutiny

An engineer looks at monkey kidney cells as he make a test on an experimental vaccine for the COVID-19 virus inside the Cells Culture Room laboratory at the Sinovac Biotech facilities in Beijing, China, on April 29, 2020. Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images

A Chinese firm’s purchase of land in Florida to build a breeding facility for lab monkeys is drawing scrutiny over the company founders’ ties to the Chinese military.

JOINN Laboratories CA Inc., the California subsidiary of a biotech firm headquartered in Beijing, in July purchased more than 1,400 acres of land for building a primate facility in Florida’s Levy County, county records show.