China and Pakistan have entered a secret three-year agreement to expand potential bio-warfare capabilities, including several research projects related to the deadly agent anthrax, the Klaxon reported citing multiple intelligence sources as part of a broader offensive against India and Western rivals.
Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020
Key-Points
China has been criticised for handling of coronavirus pandemic with speculations that disease could have emerged from Wuhan Institute of Virology, though most experts have discounted the theory.
China has been accused over its opaqueness in the handling of coronavirus as crucial information of the lethal virus was not revealed in the early days of the outbreak which could have helped the pandemic to be tackled more effectively.
One senior intelligence source was quoted as saying that DESTO has been engaged in various dual-use research projects related to anthrax under a covert biological weapons program.
Pakistan is allegedly carrying out tests on CCHFV in laboratories which are not equipped to handle Bio-Safety Level-4 diseases.
The threat of biological warfare has grown considerably in recent years with experts warning that China is heavily involved in DNA research that could potentially enable a biological weapon to target, or be ineffective against, people of specific races.
Intelligence sources cited by The Klaxon said there were concerns the Wuhan Institute of Virology had also established the Institute of Medical Biology in Kunming, in China’s southern Yunnan province.
There were concerns the Kunming facility, which is controlled by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, was also handling class-4 diseases without proper protections.
According to latest data from the Johns Hopkins University, there has been 15,439,456 cases of coronavirus worldwide, while the fatalities related to the virus has risen to 631,926.
