China's efforts to ramp up the country's biotechnology capabilities are outpacing progress to strengthen laboratory safety, prompting concerns that a deadly pathogen could escape the laboratory setting and potentially spur another pandemic, experts told The Washington Post.
The Post spoke with numerous Chinese and Western officials and scientists who visited biotech facilities in the country as recently as 2020. The experts described regular equipment issues and substandard safety training in the labs. In some cases, lab animals are illegally sold illegally after being used in experiments, and contaminated lab waste is poured into sewers, the Post's investigation found.
"It is very, very apparent that their biological safety training is minimal," Robert Hawley, a biosecurity expert who used to oversee a maximum biocontainment Army lab in Maryland, told the publication.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., and China's National Health Commission did not respond to the Post's request for comment.
The COVID-19 pandemic's origins are still unclear, though the World Health Organization and many U.S. Intelligence officials have not ruled out a lab leak as a possible cause.