The Chinese military saw Canada’s top bio-safety laboratory, and one of its scientists who was eventually fired for security breaches, as important assets to further its own virus research, government records show.
Canadian scientist Qiu Xiangguo, who worked at the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg, helped China build its lethal pathogens program at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) before it acquired a top-safety certification. Ms. Qiu then worked to ship deadly viruses there shortly after certification was obtained.
Ms. Qiu’s collaboration with China had started years before she shipped, with government authorization, Ebola and Nipah virus strains to the WIV in 2019.
Her collaborative effort was noted in an award nomination by a top Chinese general in 2016, who praised her use of the Winnipeg lab to fulfill Beijing’s interests.
This information appears in recently disclosed documents by the Liberal government, which cover security investigations at the NML involving Ms. Qiu and her husband, Cheng Keding.
Ties to Chinese Regime
Investigations contracted by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), which oversees the NML, and conducted by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), found Ms. Qiu and Mr. Cheng were involved in multiple local security breaches and had extensive ties and work arrangements with Chinese regime entities.The Winnipeg lab had initially alerted CSIS in August 2018 about the potential risks posed by Ms. Qiu and Mr. Cheng. The security agency interviewed the pair on more than one occasion and collected information from various sources about their activities.
CSIS provided PHAC with an initial security assessment of Ms. Qiu in April 2020, and an updated assessment two months later, each containing startling revelations.
The CSIS update revealed Ms. Qiu had been nominated for an “international cooperation award,” around 2016, by a major general in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who is the top virologist at the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and the director of the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology. Most names are redacted in the documents, but this likely refers to Maj.-Gen. Chen Wei, with whom Ms. Qiu collaborated on Ebola research.
One of those “brilliant” results mentioned includes a visit in 2013 to the Winnipeg lab by an individual and his team from the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
After this visit, Ms. Qiu “consulted with the leaders and experts of both China and Canada on matters related to cooperation, and provided the Chinese side with the Ebola genetic sequence, which opened a door of convenience for China,” CSIS wrote in reference to the award nomination.
The security agency also wrote that Ms. Qiu had begun work on “multiple research projects” with the visiting individual from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2012, noting that CSIS information indicates the CAS “works closely with the PLA to acquire Western technologies.”
The award nomination text also says that Ms. Qiu “cooperated in a timely manner with experts from AMMS,” including the chief of AMMS' Research Institute. CSIS notes the Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS) is the “highest” research institution in the Chinese military, with tasks including the development of military biotechnologies, biological counter-terrorism, and prevention and control of major diseases.
Additional collaborators in the award nomination include individuals from CanSino Biotechnology. The Canadian government had contracted CanSino early in the COVID-19 pandemic to obtain a vaccine but the deal fell through with Beijing blocking shipments.
‘Some Position There’
Ms. Qiu told CSIS in a security screening interview in June 2020 that she didn’t know anyone involved in military research or tied to the Chinese military, or any military research institutes. When presented with the name of the major general (likely Chen Wei), she admitted having conducted Ebola research with the major general at the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology (BIB). She “probably has some position there or something,” Ms. Qiu reportedly said.This is despite CSIS uncovering that Ms. Qiu’s CV destined for Chinese audiences indicates she became a visiting professor at the BIB of the Academy of Military Medical Science in April 2016. This is one among several of her other formal affiliations with Chinese entities, which include the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Ms. Qiu became a visiting research scientist at the WIV in October 2018, according to her CV.
Before obtaining this position, Ms. Qiu had presented on Ebola at the WIV in March 2017. CSIS said it was not aware of PHAC approving a trip to Wuhan. Ms. Qiu returned to the WIV in the fall of 2017, this time to provide PHAC-authorized training.
CSIS reports that during this period in 2017, Ms. Qiu’s application to the Chinese regime’s Thousand Talents Program (TTP), used to recruit Chinese experts abroad to boost national capabilities, was being discussed with senior WIV staff.
“Service investigation reveals that the institute [WIV]’s leaders believe Ms. QIU’s application to the TTP is ’very important for our institute [WIV]’s future development,'” wrote CSIS, in another indication of the importance of Ms. Qiu and the Winnipeg lab for the communist regime.
Shortage of Trained Personnel
The facility opened in January 2018 but it faced early challenges, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable noting the development. The message from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to the State Department said the lab’s productivity was limited by a “shortage of the highly trained” personnel to safely operate the BSL-4 facility.The Jan. 19 cable also noted that, to date, the WIV had obtained government permission to work on three viruses: Ebola, Nipah, and Xinjiang hemorrhagic fever.
“Despite this permission, however, the Chinese government has not allowed the WIV to import Ebola viruses for study in the BSL-4 lab,” says the cable, adding that WIV scientists were “frustrated” by the situation.
A few months later in May, Ms. Qiu began the process of shipping 15 strains of Ebola and Nipah viruses to the Wuhan lab.
“Thank you very much for providing us with your continued and generous support and assistance with regard to the introduction of EBOV and NiV!” wrote an undisclosed WIV staff member in an email to Ms. Qiu in June 2018. EBOV and NiV refer to Ebola and Nipah viruses.
A Material Transfer Agreement was eventually provided by the WIV on Oct. 18, 2018, and PHAC authorized the shipment two weeks later on Nov. 2. The viruses were shipped in March 2019.
When PHAC authorized the transfers, the National Security Management Division at the agency knew that Ms. Qiu had allegedly shared scientific data without authorization and that she was listed as an inventor on a Chinese patent containing information produced at the Winnipeg lab. The security division also knew of allegations of security breaches involving Ms. Qiu’s husband, Mr. Keding.
The federal government says it has since tightened security at its top research facility.
