Top Republican Mike Gallagher is slamming the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for promoting ‘hostile activity’ within the U.S. after a bombshell bust of a Chinese-connected lab in California.
Local and federal officials raided a facility in Reedley, California, which turned out to be an illegal Chinese-run virus laboratory that was genetically engineering mice and experimenting with HIV, herpes and malaria.
Photos obtained by DailyMail.com via court documents show thousands of dead mice stuffed in storage bins haphazardly shoved on shelves and freezers filled to the brim with bottles of blood and plasma of origins unknown.
Gallagher, who is the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, told DailyMail.com that the discovery of lab is ‘incredibly troubling,’ and said his committee has already reached out to various federal agencies to get additional information.
Gallagher said although it’s at a very ‘early stage’ and they are still seeking answers about what happened, it ‘could be another example of CCP united front work where they set up all these organizations in order to cover hostile activity that’s happening on American soil.’
‘And if indeed this turned out to have been sort of a bioweapons lab it’s just another example that the CCP threat is not a distance over there, threats are right here at home.’
The red biohazard bag was neither marked nor certified, per court documents
Blood and plasma from unidentified sources were also found in some of the several freezers on the premises
He said he doesn’t understand why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had yet to comment on the situation.
‘We’re hoping to get more information from the FBI and we’re doing some work to untangle some of the some of the relationships between this lab and the nonprofits and sort of the tangled web of institutions to which it was tied.’
The CDC reportedly tested the substances at the lab and detected the HIV, malaria and other diseases.
GOP Sen. Joni Ernst is also warning that China is ‘in our house’ and calling for accountability.
The senator from Iowa told DailyMail.com in an exclusive statement following the bombshell bust that ‘China is not just in our backyard, they are in our house, illegally conducting risky research that poses a serious public health concern.’
‘The world has already witnessed the impact of Chinese state-run Wuhan Lab’s experiments on coronaviruses in bats, and I have worked to put an end to the taxpayer funding of these dangerous projects,’ Ernst continued.
‘We cannot allow what happened at Wuhan on our own shores. There must be accountability.’
FBI Director Christopher Wray confirmed that a leak from a laboratory in the central Chinese city of Wuhan likely caused the COVID pandemic.
A 10-page report, released on June 23, showed how multiple U.S. agencies in addition to the FBI – including the Department of Energy – now believe the lab leak is the most likely origin of the pandemic.
In March, investigators gained entry to the warehouse operated by an organization called Prestige BioTech.
They discovered a small room containing nearly 1,000 white mice crowded into storage containers under bright lights 24 hours a day, seven days a week in an airless room on perpetually dirty bedding. When investigators found them, hundreds were already dead.
A wide array of vials were also identified containing biomaterials, including blood and tissue, as well as many other unlabeled chemicals.
The mice were confined to a poorly ventilated room hardly larger than a closet under constant bright lights shown in the above photo. Court documents also say they lacked adequate food and water
Some were found to contain chlamydia, E. Coli, streptococcus pneumonia, hepatitis B and C, herpes 1 and 5, rubella and malaria. And it appears that the biological waste produced at the site was discarded in such a way that violated the safe removal protocols required in the state Medical Waste Management Act.
To date, city officials have removed than 5,000 gallons of biological waste from the site over three separate trips.
And while the precise origins of the lab remain unknown, county officials noted that the other addresses provided were empty offices in China or other addresses in that country that could not be verified.
Currently, the investigation into the provenance of the lab is ongoing.
