Sunday Times 2
Chinese officer accuses United States of secret biological attack
View(s):By James Rush
A Chinese military official has blamed the US government for the new strain of bird flu affecting China, calling it a secret biological attack. People’s Liberation Army Senior Colonel Dai Xu said America released the H7N0 bird flu virus into China, in an act of biological warfare, in a blog on Saturday.
Writing on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site similar to Twitter, Dai alleged the new bird flu strain had been designed as a weapon, similar to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), that affected the country in 2003 and which he claims was also developed as a US bio-weapon. The US has dismissed the claims.
State Department spokesman Jason Rebholz told the Washington Free Beacon: ‘There is absolutely no truth to these allegations.’ Dai’s post suggests the new outbreak of bird flu should not be a cause for concern. He wrote: ‘The national leadership should not pay too much attention to it, or else it’ll be like in 2003 with SARS! ‘At that time, America was fighting in Iraq and feared that China would take advantage of the opportunity to take other actions. This is why they used bio-psychological weapons against China.’
He said the country fell into turmoil, which he claimed is what the US had wanted, and now they were using the ‘same old trick’.
Nine people have died from the 33 confirmed cases of the virus, all in eastern China, according to data from the National Health and Family Planning Commission. State media quoted authorities as saying a vaccine should be ready within months.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, Dai said even if ‘a few may die’ from the outbreak, it would not be 1,000th of the deaths caused by vehicle accidents in China.
© Daily Mail, London
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