Reedley Lab Owner Tied to CCP

The owner of the Reedley biolab was/is part of the Chinese Communist Party’s “Military-Civil Fusion” program, and received millions in suspicious dollars from China while stealing American bio-technology, selling unlicensed pregnancy and COVID tests, and squirreling away thousands of vials of deadly pathogens.

So says the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party report –  released today into the Reedley lab matter.  The report lays out the owner’s ties to the CCP and our own CDC’s utter failure to grasp the gravity of the situation.

In fact, the CDC refused to test the vials of various pathogens – which included HIV, Dengue, and COVID – that were found in the lab and then fobbed off the City of Reedley officials who later found a refrigerator labeled “Ebola” by saying that since the fridge was then empty they could just go ahead and clean it.

That really happened.

Lab owner Jai Bei Zhu, who is going by the name David He for now, remains in county jail in Fresno, having been arrested last month by law enforcement officers from the Food and Drug Administration on federal charges of misbranding medical devices and making false statements to federal investigators.

Zhu, said his attorney Anthony Capozzi, will be pleading not guilty to any and all charges (there may be additional allegations) he will face in court tomorrow.

Zhu – who served as an executive at several “PRC government-controlled and directed companies – and his convoluted financial structures and his CCP-type “American imperialism” sentiments are on clear display throughout the report  His what can only be described as being a grifter for the CCP persona would help defeat the “American aggressor and wild ambitious wolf!” he claimed.

The report shows that Zhu is intimately involved with various Chinese corporate entities that have deep ties to the CCP.  The Military-Civil Fusion program, per the United States State Department, has as its goal “to enable the PRC to develop the most technologically advanced military in the world. As the name suggests, a key part of MCF is the elimination of barriers between China’s civilian research and commercial sectors, and its military and defense industrial sectors.”

And that effort involves the theft of intellectual property, of which Zhu was found to have done while operating a number of shady businesses in Canada.  Zhu fled Canada after being found liable – to the tune of $330 million Canadian dollars –  in civil court of having stolen cow fertilization techniques from an American company that he was working with.  The technology stolen and shipped to China allows dairy farmers to select whether or not a cow will have a boy or girl calf, an invaluable ability.

According to documents found in the lab, Zhu claimed that his company was “looking to seize the opportunity to develop the operational platform for the rapid growth in the Chinese dairy industry, fulfill[ing] [PRC] Premier [and CCP Politburo Member] Wen Jiabao’s wish to ‘provide every Chinese, especially children, sufficient milk every day.’” At that time, China faced a pressing milk crisis and the PRC’s government was pursuing “policies to develop the high-yielding dairy cattle market.”

And from the report:

“In 2016, after years of litigation with XY over his IP theft, the Supreme Court of British Columbia, found Zhu guilty of “fraud on an ‘epic scale’ that ‘resulted in one of the largest awards in a Canadian court.” The court found that “Zhu, whose operations extend to China as well as Canada, plann[ed] to steal the technology to the point where XY’s market would collapse.” The IP theft directly benefited PRC state-controlled enterprises like some of Zhu’s PRC-based companies, and it also benefited IND Group’s “two head offices in China, in Beijing and Qing[d]ao.”

The report was released at a hearing/presentation led by select committee chair Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) this afternoon in DC.  However, as noted by Reedley City Manage Nicole Zieba, the report received bi-partisan support, with local Congressman Jim Costa (D-Fresno) praising the report and the actions of the city.

Costa was very concerned as to how such a lab could come to exist, saying current regulations leave “responsibility for this area vague, at least.”

Beyond venting on the incomprehensibly lackadaisical CDC – for example: “The CDC’s continuing refusal to test pathogens despite reasonable requests and the offer to pay from local officials facing a concerned populace simply does not make sense” –  the report sharply criticizes the “gaps in federal pathogen (control) standards.”

“Could there be more Reedleys around the country?” asked Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA).

From the report: 

“A disturbing realization is that no one knows whether there are other unknown biolabs because there is no monitoring system in place. Zhu, UMI, and other confederates at the Reedley Biolab were able to buy pathogens from accredited and respected U.S. laboratories. Zhu is a wanted fugitive in Canada and serial fraudster. UMI and its successor organizations like Prestige Biotech are little more than a corporate filing and a website. There does not appear to be any voluntary vetting of the purchase of pathogens or the equipment and materials needed to increase the lethality of pathogens. That is dangerous and requires reform.”

It remains unclear if Zhu – who has claimed he was involved in a “research project” when asked about the pathogens and other equipment found in the lab – could have been directly involved specifically in bio-weapon research.  The report states that “(W)ith the exception of Ebola, the labeled pathogens (which CDC accepted at face value) are inconsistent with the operation of a bioweapons program.”

That being said, the report stressed that what was found could “pose a substantial risk to the community. A blood supply infected with HIV, for example, or immunocompromised communities like nursing homes suddenly falling ill with tuberculosis, could spark a localized panic. In addition, individuals can use even simple pathogens to great effect to harm a large population.”

Additionally, it must be noted that an expert consulted by the Globe for a previous article did warn that the materials found in the lab did not match a “research project” into the creation of virus and other “testing kits” like the ones Zhu had been selling (selling illegally after importing them from China and slapping a “Made in the USA” label on them.)

Fixing the broken – or non-existent – regulatory system that allows bad actors to act dangerously unimpeded, said Zieba, is some good that could come out of this near-miss of a terrible tragedy.

“This issue has bi-partisan support and there are legislative fixes we can create for the safety of everyone,” Zieba said.  “This is not the end for us – it’s the beginning.”

The report can be found here.  Note: this link is to a Fresno TV station site as the Committee itself has yet to post the report on its own website.  It is expected to appear shortly, possibly along with further information on the matter.  Here’s the link for the site.

Today’s presentation can be found here:  https://www.c-span.org/video/?531914-1/reps-gallagher-mccarthy-costa-news-conference-reedley-medical-lab .  Note: the audio is a bit problematic and varies widely from speaking to speaker.