Top college lab urged to come clean about ties to infamous Wuhan facility

Federal officials are pressing one of the most advanced bio-containment laboratories in the U.S. to reveal more information relating to their extensive work and contractual relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a new letter from the Department of Education reveals.

The letter, dated April 24 and addressed to the University of Texas chancellor James Milliken, asks explicitly for disclosures as required under section 117 of the Higher Education Act.

"Between June 6, 2014, and June 3, 2019, U.T. reported approximately twenty-four contracts with various Chinese state-owned universities and ten contracts with Huawei Technologies, all purportedly worth a reported total of $12,987,896," the letter, signed by Reed D. Rubinstein, principal deputy general counsel for the U.S. Department of Education, states. "It is not clear, however, whether U.T. has, in fact, reported all gifts from or contracts with or relating to the Wuhan MCL, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and/or all other foreign sources, including agents and instrumentalities of the government of the Peoples' Republic of China."

The Galveston National Laboratory (GNL), which is part of the University of Texas system, is one of just 14 bio-safety level 4 labs in the U.S., and boasted in a 2018 release about its work in directing operations of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

The 2018 agreement provided for the exchange of some of America's most talented research and national security scientists, in addition to wide-ranging research sharing — an arrangement that experts say poses serious national security risks, especially considering the Wuhan lab's burgeoning scrutiny and linkage to the coronavirus pandemic, formally termed COVID-19.

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