In my last article, I wrote about HIV research which was being conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology under the aegis of the German-Chinese virology project, which would give rise to a full-fledged German-Chinese virology lab in Wuhan on the other side of the Yangtze River. The research involved genetic engineering and precisely that part of the AIDS virus elements of which would turn up as so-called HIV inserts in SARS-CoV-2. It was the presence of these elements which led the late French virologist and discoverer of HIV Luc Montagnier to conclude that the virus had been created in a lab.
But just how big of a role did the Wuhan Institute play in the German-Chinese virology partnership in general? Well, on closer inspection, a very big role indeed: so big that it is fair to say that it was de facto the main Chinese partner. The longstanding official Chinese partner institution of Essen University Hospital, whose virology department coordinated the network, is rather Tongji Medical College in Wuhan, which is in turn part of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). The HUST is also the Chinese co-sponsor of the German-Chinese virology lab at the HUST-affiliated Union Hospital in Wuhan.
The collective seal of the “transregional research centre”, TR660, can be seen below. The large seal at the top left is that of Essen University Hospital. The large seal at the top right is that of the HUST.
The smaller seal with the abstract green-and-purple motif is that of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Here is a closer look.
But consider the actual personnel affiliated with the “transregional centre”. TRR60 ran for nine years, from 2009 to 2018, split into two funding periods. The funding came from the German Research Foundation and the Chinese Natural Science Foundation. The complete list of members for the second funding period, which started in 2014, is available here.
Fully one-third of the principal investigators based in China, four out of twelve, were at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. They include none other than Xinwen Chen, who was at the time the director of the WIV, as well as Rongge Yang and Binlian Sun, the researchers whose work on the HIV envelope protein gp120 maps onto the HIV inserts. The HUST had five senior members of the research team, so one more than the Wuhan Institute.
But now look at the Chinese post-docs affiliated with the project.
More than half, seven out of 12, were based at the Wuhan Institute of Virology!
It is hardly surprising, then, that when Ulf Dittmer, the coordinator of the German-Chinese network, organised a Sino-German virology symposium in Berlin in 2015 (which I’ve written about here), the WIV was given pride of place, as the below group photo of the participants makes clear.
The small, buck-toothed man with the blue striped tie at the front is Xinwen Chen, the then-Director of the WIV. The woman with the short hair and glasses, also at the front on the opposite side of the stairs, is Zhengli Shi, the WIV’s now world-famous bat coronavirus researcher. The young woman with the long hair to Shi’s right and one stair down appears to be Yanyi Wang, who would succeed Chen as the director of the WIV. The man to Shi’s left is, of course, none other than Christian Drosten, the German designer of the “gold standard” SARS-CoV-2 PCR protocol who, in a 2021 interview, would innocently claim that he had “no personal connection” to the coronavirus researchers at the WIV. (See my article here.) The bald man in the middle of the photo is Ulf Dittmer.
It should be noted the German-Chinese collaboration would continue not only in the form of the physical German-Chinese virology lab at Union Hospital in Wuhan, but also in the form of a so-called Sino-German Virtual Institute for Viral Immunology (SGVIVI) under the direction of Ulf Dittmer and encompassing many of the former principal investigators in the “transregional centre” TRR60. Both Xinwen Chen and Rongge Yang continue to be members of the successor network.
Great efforts have been made to connect U.S.-based academic or research institutions to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, much of them focused, of course, on the EcoHealth Alliance’s 2018 DEFUSE proposal, which did indeed include the WIV as partner. But DEFUSE was not funded, and the similar CREID network, which was funded, precisely did not include the WIV (and did not get underway until 2020 to boot, i.e., after the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan).
Here, on the other hand, we have a full-fledged, publicly-funded German-Chinese “transregional research centre” which clearly involves a massive presence of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, comprising no fewer than 11 scientists who were based there. There was no need for mysterious leaks or arduous FOI requests to find this out. The relevant information is publicly available on the website of the University of Duisburg-Essen – and it is conveniently available in English no less.
Germany does in fact have its own Freedom of Information Act, though it is relatively young (dating from just 2005) and untested. Imagine what else we might find out if anyone did successfully FOIA the pertinent documents from the university or the German Research Foundation.
Robert Kogon is the pen name of a widely-published journalist covering European affairs. Subscribe to his Substack.
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Excellent, and completely agree with the author, especially the last two paragraphs. ”….. Britain is stronger through diversity. That is a lie, obviously.” Michael Gove is a clown, and a desperate one at that. No time for a lengthy post but this guy nails it in 2mins, as far as I’m concerned, and what we’re seeing across most of the West is just another example of ‘Lockstep’, just with different contexts;
”Mixed race, proud Brit @dannyroscoe7
wears a “White Lives Matter” t-shirt & is asked about immigration.
He discusses The Great Replacement, the anti-white agenda, we are getting flooded, it’s to destabilise society, we’re told to sit down & shut up.”
https://twitter.com/DaveAtherton20/status/1769318371839865022
I know you are in Holland so same as uk I suppose , since day one 23/3/20 I’ve remained positive but I must admit my head is going down lately , there seems to be no way out from our descent into the abyss
Japan doesn’t seem to need “diversity”. I don’t see huge swathes of migrants turning up in Japan expecting a four star hotel having ditched their documents. — “Diversity” is an illusion created by One World Government people using mass immigration to destroy National Identities so we all just feel like citizens of the world, and we think of ourselves as a Region rather than a Nation.
Quite so varmint – I’m in S Korea and going to Japan shortly. Its a refreshing escape from the race nonsense and wokery back home. Korea and Japan are quite homogeneous societies with a few guest workers from Phillipines and Indonesia and of course westerners. But no-one is entitled to immigrate here either. Culture and tradition is too important. Yes theres LGB folk here like everywhere but no-one makes an issue about it. Plenty of financial pressures on the younger working generation and high taxes but no all-out assault on the family and social norms as in UK. However the low birth rate – told it was 0.6 per couple and the falling housing market will probably be addressed. Division will have to be through some arbitrary politics not race or sex/gender as was the case in the Cultural Revolution in China. Tucker Carlson did a good interview in #77 with Xi van Vliet who lived through it.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8teeqe
Our politicians seem to believe that the answer to everything is more politicians and more legislation.
Blair’s Britain has tested that idea to destruction; blown it out of the water.
It is now time to test the opposite idea; fewer politicians and deregulation.
That should have been very easy for a government with a majority of, say, eighty seats: simply restore the regulatory environment and constitutional arrangements that existed in 1990.
Instead Bunter spent £500bn chasing made up fairies at the bottom of the No. 10 garden. I expect more of the same from Rodney and his team
I will be voting Reform as a simple protest.
It isn’t much, but it is something.
Please don’t think the failure to do what you and I would hve wanted was a mistake or oversight by Boris and Sunak (and before them Cameron-Clegg, Cameron and May); they acted as they did because that is what the Con Government wanted to do.
It’s those ‘Conservative Party’ members inhabiting the dark recesses ‘influencing’ events, the ‘Tory Party’ puppets, and the country, which is why the party needs to whither.
Replacing the puppets, as we can see, hasn’t improved matters.
It is not only those “inhabiting the dark recesses of the party”. For me, every remaining single member of that wretched party is conspiring against my freedoms, culture and liberty. They are not Conservatives they are useful idiots at best.
Remember this – you can spoil your ballot and cast a vote both at the same time.
How? Join the spoiled ballot party and have a bit of fun whilst exacting revenge on the jackasses:
1) write what you want on the ballot paper.
Why? Because at the count – where all the votes are counted – all the candidates and their entire entourages must be allowed to see all “spoiled” ballot papers except yours will be adulterated with the messages you want to send to the candidates – and it is anonymous too!!!
2) make sure that you indicate a clear preference for one of the candidates amidst all your scribbles.
How? Here is an example as explained by former Conservative and the Change UK MP Heidi Allen – on “Have I Got News for You” she explained on one ‘spoiled’ ballot the voter had drawn in the tick box a limp penis instead of an X. In the box to vote for her the voter had drawn an erect penis.
So it was agreed by the candidates that the vote was indicating a preference for Heidi Allen.
So you can vote for Reform UK and send the candidates a message or three.
Also, if we all did this the count would take many days instead of 24 hours.
Of course I cannot recommend anyone does anything like that as it is civil disobedience and that will never do. Even if it might be fun I cannot recommend it.
There is no universal class.
Believing that any group of people, be it bureaucrats or anyone else for that matter, can continually act selflessly in the interest of others is just as demented as thinking a man becomes a woman just by claiming it.
Some people can act selflessly sometimes in some very specific circumstances. That’s it. The rest of the time, I.e. as a general rule, people act in their own interest and can have their interests aligned with those of others with the right sent of incentives.
But that’s modern society, evermore constructed on fantasies.
I watched the new Dune film recently and looking into the author Frank Herbert I notice he said this which I rather like:
“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.”
The especially or more easily corruptible, I would say. I reckon everyone is corruptible to some degree, with exceptions being incredibly rare.
Believing that any group of people, be it bureaucrats or anyone else for that matter, can continually act selflessly in the interest of others is just as demented as thinking a man becomes a woman just by claiming it.
That’s obviously not possible because the outcome would be these people quickly starving to death. But that’s not what Hegel had in mind. He thought of the Prussian Beamtentum, ie, the class of civil servants for life which existed in Prussia. These were people who had sworn an oath of loyalty and service to the crown and in turn, the king had taken on responsibilty for their suitably dignified upkeep. Hence, by trying to make a successful career in the service of the king at ample pay and generous retirement opportunities, they were also working in their own interest despite their job was to work for the public good or rather, the good of the state which was considered to be a superorganism ultimatively made up of all members of the public.
That’s the mistake isn’t it? Thinking that interests can be aligned by decree or oath. Doesn’t work.
That’s what you believe. But this belief is based on a very limited worldview, namely, restricted to the post-1945 republican, pseudo-democractic corruptocracy. My personal experiences are obviously as well but I’m not inclined to assume that the USA from LBJ onwards is really a model of all the world ever was and all that it can ever become. There’s too much information to the contrary from past centuries, even from the USA.
Yes I strongly believe that people won’t commit to lifetime of selfless service just because they promise to do so, or becausr someone expects them to.
What are you replying to? Certainly not my text, as I specifically wrote
the outcome would be these people quickly starving to death
But that’s a strawman. People aren’t expected to serve selflessly but merely, in modern lingo, to do their jobs properly in exchange for getting paid to do so. And in this case, do their jobs properly according to a very high professional standard. All of this free market terminology is really inappropriate but it’s sort-of a translation here.
BTW, an oath is a solemn promise while calling God as witness. This alone will have given it considerable weight in pre-atheist times. And atheism or rather agnostic amorality due to being convinced that it will work out ok, is another pretty recently developed disease of our times.
When the future grows less certain, it’s common sense to still retain some ‘selfless service’, to maintain your sanity, but to restrict it to those where the future relationship looks brighter.
But that becomes a lesser ‘selfless service’, and that is the problem.
To ask the question again: What precisely constitutes proper Brexit, as opposed to real-world Brexit?
As the Brexit impropriety keeps being asserted, I’d really like to know what it actually is. I suspect mentioning this a crowd control tactic by the Brexit architects, however, I’d gladly learn something different.
Disclaimer: As person who has had the privilege of paying (top-rate) UK income tax for the past 13 years, I very much don’t want to be declared an illegal immigrant again. Unless I get all that money back immediately, that is.
If you are declared an illegal immigrant (and I would speculate that “again” is hyperbole) then I will eat my hat and personally attempt to stop the goons from deporting you.
To answer your question, I personally am not sure but I am fairly ignorant on this subject. I agree Northern Ireland seems a bit insoluble as we’ve committed to two things that are incompatible. As for the rest, I think we can do whatever we want to do in terms of ditching laws brought in as part of our EU membership, but the Govt has I believe not chosen to do that – they might plead lack of time, or a “pandemic”. But I think you are broadly right – we’re out.
I’m using illegal immigrant for foreigner without legal immigration status in Britain.
All EU citizens hitherto legally resident in the UK lost their legal immigration status because of Brexit and had to apply to the home office to be granted a new legal immigration status. This was not to be withheld unduly. But not unduly withheld still means possibly withheld, making for some uncomfortable months of waiting. An experience I don’t care to repeat.
I regret the fact that you were uncomfortable – I do not believe you had any reason to be. In the circumstances, I think what was done was reasonable and given that leaving the EU was the kind of thing a nation sometimes has to do, I am not sure how it (the settled status business) could have been handled better – certainly everyone I know (friends, colleagues and close family) went through it smoothly.
In most of my experiences so far, anything-goverment is always an edged thing and carelessly touching it might result in getting hurt. And you’ll never know if you made all the right dance moves at the right time to pacify the ill-tempered deity until it has come to a decision. While I’m not opposed to states as concept, not even to strong states, I’m very suspicious of the modern variety of them and strongly prefer to avoid any contact with it.
Yes those are all fair points
You say that everyone talks about the science. I would like to see a book on the anti-science that was pushed during the pandemic. i.e. essentially lists of the prior art on masks, modelling, vaccines, etc. before the bureaucrats and politicians ripped it all up in their pursuit of power. That power being against the ancient rights of the English, for example.
A positive strategy would be to understand what Science is: it is a mode of enquiry. It’s primary objective is ‘finding out through investigation’, leading to general observations, so others can do the same. It’s not an authority, with unquestionable definitions, where any questioning of the narrative is met with derision.
I’m reading The Scientific Method, by G Holman, and he states that an early step in the process is to get an understanding of the thinking, including currently accepted ‘laws’, that is leading to the conflict. Isn’t that common sense?
I wondered why ‘public health’ officials were so unprepared, yet wealthy, private individuals had ready made fixes, that did not address the underlying problems. The answer is very troubling.
It’s a kakistocracy, an 18th century word meaning; the worst possible government, run by the worst possible people.
Coup d’etat or not what occurred in March 2020 was the formal surrender by Bozo of the UK government to the Davos Deviants.
That is all there is to it.
It wasn’t a coup d’etat.
It was an outbreak of the deadliest illness known to man.
Not Covid, Mass Psychosis.
The ambulance is back.
And still correct.
I know I am.
“Bonfire of the bureaucrats” has a nice ring to it!
Sort of toasty.
Note the Kings cross station large board, displaying sayings from Islam for Ramadam.
Do they display quotes from the Bible during Lent or Christmas? No, from the Jewish religion? No
I would now say we are a country which is having the Islamic religion now being promoted as the main religion of the Country, next it will be shariah law, When questioned as to what Christian messages have been promoted the only one that could be recalled was “have a flippin good pancake day” We are being played.