China has been the focus of debates since the Coronavirus cases emerged in Wuhan. A new revelation by a report has again pointed out to the country.

According to documents obtained by The Weekend Australian, Zhou Yusen, a respected military scientist for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who collaborated with the controversial Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and American experts, submitted a patent for a Covid-19 vaccine on 24 February 2020 before the country reported its first human to human transmission. And later, the scientist was found dead under mysterious circumstances in May 2020.

Despite, Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Zhou’s status as an award-winning military scientist, there were no reports or tributes, with him only being labelled as “dead” in a Chinese media item from July and a scientific publication from December last year.

Swarajya reported that the report revealed that the patent, was lodged just five weeks after China acknowledged human-to-human transmission of the novel virus.

Additionally, the report said that Zhou worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and collaborated with the New York Blood Center before joining the PLA.

Zhou also collaborated closely with the Wuhan lab, which has come under increased international scrutiny for its role in the pandemic, as well as the famous “batwoman” or the Chinese virologist Shi Zhengli.

According to the report, the duo’s strong working relationship substantiates declassified United Stated intelligence data released in January 2021 that claimed the Wuhan facility was engaged in “secret military activity”.

“The WIV has engaged in classified research, including laboratory animal experiments, on behalf of the Chinese military since at least 2017,” the intelligence report added.

It also noted that the United States and other donors who supported the civilian research at the WIV have the right and obligation to investigate if any of the research funds were diverted to secret Chinese military initiatives.

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