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China ramping up espionage efforts in US amid scrutiny over COVID-19

Former CIA Station Chief Dan Hoffman warns China has become even more aggressive in targeting U.S. defense and intelligence.

The lawyers behind one of the several class-action lawsuits against Chinaclaim to present a damning narrative with new information on the alleged cover-up of the coronavirus crisis in its early stages by the Chinese government in an amended complaint filed Monday.

The allegations in the suit extensively detail Chinese research into bat coronaviruses at a lab in Wuhan, China, claiming that’s where the disease first appeared, and China’s alleged knowledge about, and ensuing cover-up of, the outbreak.

Fox News has reported that U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating whether the coronavirus may have escaped from a research lab in Wuhan. Sources told Fox News that the genome mapping of the virus shows it was not genetically altered or engineered to be made as a bioweapon, but that they believe the research into the virus was part of an effort to show that China’s ability to identify and combat viruses is equal or greater than that of the U.S.

Among the new allegations in the amended complaint are that China’s “Surveillance Reporting System” (SRS), which is designed to detect outbreaks of diseases like the coronavirus, was kneecapped by orders to doctors to not report information about the coronavirus.null

“The SRS failed here, because the Wuhan doctors and hospitals were forbidden from entering the information, and the doctor-controlled Chinese CDC was overridden by the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] controlled WHC [Wuhan Health Commission],” the suit reads.

“On December 30, 2019, WHC released a notice to medical institutions that patients visiting the Wuhan Seafood Market had contracted a pneumonia-like illness,” it continues. “The notice warned medical professionals: ‘Any organizations or individuals are not allowed to release treatment information to the public without authorization.'”