Xiangguo Qiu has been conducting research with Chinese military scientists and other researchers, including at the Wuhan Institute of Virology
One of two fired scientists at the centre of an RCMP investigation into a massive security breach at Canada’s top infectious-disease laboratory in Winnipeg is working in China and collaborating with researchers from the People’s Liberation Army.
to China and posed a credible security threat to the country, according to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. “The only thing you are missing is an interview with the person, but if they are out of the country, you can’t do it. There is no problem charging them. The problem is getting them back to face the charges,” Mr. Paulson said. “The federal Crown might have some reservations about charging them knowing there is no prospect of them showing up, but I think it is in the public interest that they be charged.”travel lockdown for three years until January, 2023.
The document says Dr. Qiu works for USTC. Jin Tengchuan, the principal investigator at the Laboratory of Structural Immunology at USTC, lists her as a co-inventor on a patent. Mr. Jin did not respond to requests for comment. “Well, that makes me wonder what circumstances she was under when she emigrated to Canada. Why did she come?” asked Earl Brown, a professor emeritus of biochemistry, microbiology and immunology at the University of Ottawa’s faculty of medicine who has worked extensively in China in the past. “People leave for more freedom from China, or to make more money.
Over a period of 13 months, though, the Chinese-Canadian microbiologist and her biologist husband’s lives were turned upside down. “My sense is this was part of a larger strategy by China to get access to our innovation system,” said Filippa Lentzos, an associate professor of science and international security at King’s College London. “It was a way for them to to find out what was going on in Canada’s premier lab.”
Her work with former colleague and microbiologist Gary Kobinger vaulted Dr. Qiu into the international spotlight. The pair developed a treatment for Ebola, one that in its first human application led to the full recovery of 27 patients with the infection during a 2014 outbreak in Liberia. The security agency said in a June 30, 2020, report that it uncovered Dr. Qiu’s association with multiple “talent programs” run by Chinese authorities that “aim to boost China’s national technological capabilities and may pose a serious threat to research institutions, including government research facilities, by incentivizing economic espionage and theft of intellectual property.”
for two months annually over three years – a program that CSIS said provides up to $1-million in research subsidies. The application cites the Wuhan Institute describing Dr. Qiu as “the only highly experienced Chinese expert available internationally who is still fighting on the frontlines in a P4 laboratory,” a reference to the National Microbiology Lab.
“In one case, after being presented with evidence from her electronic accounts, Dr. Qiu acknowledged that she knew about the application but maintained that she herself had no part in applying,” the report said. Later, it added: “These are not credible explanations as investigators know this to be untrue based on the electronic content of Dr. Qiu’s e-mail exchanges on this topic with individuals of PRC .
She was also confronted by CSIS about her collaboration with Major General Chen Wei, a high-ranking People’s Liberation Army officer lauded by President Xi Jinping for her involvement with China’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, developed by CanSino Biologics Inc., a military-backed institute.
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