Former Director of Chinese Virology Lab Dies of ‘Sudden Illness’

Researchers in protective suits work at a biopharmaceutical lab in Shenyang city, Liaoning Province, China, on June 9, 2020. (Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images)

Prominent Chinese researcher Wu Jianguo passed away at the age of 66 early this month. One China expert believes that Wu’s untimely death could be linked to the political struggle among high-level officials in the lead-up to the 20th Party Congress, which convened on Oct. 16.

Wu, former director of the State Key Laboratory of Virology (SKLV), passed away from “sudden illness” after midnight on Oct. 3 in Foshan city, Guangdong Province, according to the obituary released by the lab’s official WeChat account on Oct. 4.

Notably, the SKLV was supported by the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), where COVID-19 “likely originated,” according to a memorandum by public experts, as previously reported by The Epoch Times.

In addition to Wu’s numerous achievements in virology, microbiology, and molecular biology, he was appointed the director of the SKLV from 2004 to 2016, the director of the Institute of Medical Microbiology at Jinan University since 2016, and the director of the Foshan Institute of Medical Microbiology since 2020.

Wu is also a member of the “Changjiang Scholars Program,” created by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1998 to fund top scholars and further educational development. Beijing selects members of this program, and they receive subsidies directly from the CCP’s State Council.

Political Struggles Within CCP

Li Yanming, a U.S.-based China expert and current affairs commentator, believes that Wu’s death is indicative of the power struggles among high-level CCP leaders. Amid the 20th Party Congress, Xi Jinping seeks to secure an unprecedented third term and validate his authority by claiming that his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic was a success.

“Wu’s death was a sensitive topic for a few reasons,” Li said in an interview with the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times. “It occurred right before the 20th Party Congress, and he was, as the director of the SKLV for 12 years, one of the top leaders in the Chinese virology industry and, perhaps, directly involved in China’s secret virology research.”

“Additionally, especially in the last few years, there have been numerous incidents of Chinese virologists or vaccine researchers dying one after another from unusual ‘sudden illnesses,’” Li said.

Wu’s death has attracted widespread public attention in China as a few prominent researchers have also died from sudden illnesses in recent years.

‘Shanghai Gang’ Behind Top Chinese Labs

According to Li’s insider sources familiar with Beijing’s political affairs, the “Shanghai Gang” is behind the WIV and SKLV. Furthermore, the group created a large interest group consisting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences (SIBS), and Shanghai’s universities, research institutes, and civilian and military hospitals. This interest group, rooted in Shanghai’s medical biotechnology field, controls funding allocation for all biological research projects in the city.

The “Shanghai Gang,” or “Shanghai Clique,” is a name given to a group of CCP officials who rose to power through ties with former CCP leader Jiang Zemin, who was also the former mayor of Shanghai. Jiang is Xi’s political rival.

Furthermore, Li’s insider sources also said that the group controls the WIV and SKLV by appointing their supporters to these laboratories as directors and important committee members.

Through several insider sources with ties to high-level officials, the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times was able to verify that Jiang has significant political influence over China’s high-tech biochemical and pharmaceutical industries. Jiang’s family also holds tremendous business interests within these industries.