Jan. 13, 2021 5:30 am ET
At least two federal agencies worked to distribute Covid-19 tests from a Chinese genetics company, despite warnings about security risks from U.S. intelligence and security officials, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
In the early days of the virus, BGI Group or people trying to distribute its products approached at least 11 states in a sometimes aggressive push to get the products into government-run laboratories or set up entire labs, according to people who received the approaches and documents.
BGI, China’s leading genetics company, enlisted a foundation tied to a former U.S. president and used a company linked to the United Arab Emirates’ top spy to promote its efforts. A prominent New York real-estate lawyer threatened to complain to California’s governor if state health officials there didn’t use BGI’s tests.
To improve the performance of our website, show the most relevant news products and targeted advertising, we collect technical impersonal information about you, including through the tools of our partners. You can find a detailed description of how we use your data in our Privacy Policy. For a detailed description of the technologies, please see the Cookie and Automatic Logging Policy.
By clicking on the Accept & Close button, you provide your explicit consent to the processing of your data to achieve the above goal.
You can withdraw your consent using the method specified in the Privacy Policy.
Accept & Close
Sputnik International
Trump loyalist Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe is holding up a mandated report to Congress on election interference – and wants to place a greater emphasis on China.
Amid the dispute over what to include, Ratcliffe is blowing past a Friday deadline, as intelligence agents comb over intel gleaned after the election.
The spat, first reported by Bloomberg News, revisits a pre-election tug of war over whether to stress Russian election interference – following Kremlin-backed interference in the 2016 elections, and threats from China.
It also comes as President Trump continues to claim the election was rigged against him – despite the Electoral College meeting to make Joe Biden s win official and the Supreme Court declining to take up a challenge brought by the Texas attorney general.