The Authors

• Edward C. Holmes
• W. Ian Lipkin

Edward C. Holmes

Edward C. Holmes: Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, School of Life and Environmental Sciences and School of Medical Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

In the interests of full-disclosure it should be noted Sydney University gets an estimated $534.1 million a year from selling bogus degrees to Chinese students. That’s a billion every two years - which amounts to 23% of total university revenue. That figure still doesn't include grants from China for various think tanks or joint-projects. Whistle-blower, Professor Babones says:

"Some students don't read and write English well enough and don't understand what to do...we end up with Mandarin-speaking students in groups where no one is able to speak English. It's an unspoken but widely understood rule... that we are expected to help students pass. Or at least not expected to be failing them. People are getting degrees who probably shouldn't."

That is selling fake degrees for mega-bucks - it's corruption - plain and simple. However Michael Spence, University of Sydney vice-chancellor, categorized the debate around Chinese influence as just "anti-China hysteria".

Meanwhile, according to a Financial Times article, "University of Technology Sydney is involved in a A$10m research partnership with CETC, a Chinese state-owned military technology company that developed an app security forces use to trace and detain Muslims (Uighurs)."

Edward C. Holmes is also the Honorary Visiting Professor, Fudan University, Shanghai, China and Guest Professor, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China . These types of positions are known to be highly suss. Although the financial details of this gig are not made public, there have been several cases recently exposing such arrangements as nothing more than cash delivery devices from the CCP in return for information and publishing of papers favourable to the CCP.

For example:
"Charles Lieber, the chair of the department of chemistry and chemical biology (at Harvard), is accused of hiding his involvement in China’s Thousand Talents Plan....Prosecutors say, he was paid $50,000 (£38,000) a month by the Wuhan University of Technology in China and living expenses up to $158,000. He was also awarded more than $1.5m to establish a research lab at the Chinese university.

In exchange, prosecutors allege, Lieber agreed to publish articles, organise international conferences and apply for patents on behalf of the Chinese university, among other things."

From Financial Times article:

Edward Holmes, an Australian virologist who helped map and share the genetic sequence of the virus, said there was “no evidence” that Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19 in humans, originated in a Wuhan laboratory. He said the closest known relative of Sars-Cov-2 was a bat virus named RaTG13, which was indeed kept at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. But he added the bat virus, which was sampled in Yunnan province, had a level of genome sequence divergence from coronavirus equivalent to at least 20-50 years of evolutionary change. Thus, he does not believe it was responsible for Covid-19.

Holmes was, in fact, the only non-Chinese person allowed initial access to the genetic sequence by CCP state-scientists.  This indicates the level of trust he holds amongst that tight-knit group as well as his key role in formulating a PR strategy to explain the unprecedented emergence of a super-contagious coronavirus - right next door to a lab that was engineering coronaviruses to make them more contagious ...

COI's: Two academic positions at top Chinese institutions. leading scientist at Syd Uni, which is highly dependent on Chinese student money - shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a paper that purports to investigate the involvement of a Chinese lab in the origin of Covid

W. Ian Lipkin

W. Ian Lipkin: Columbia University, New York.

No figures published that i could find for how much Columbia makes from Chinese students per year but it was a growth industry. 15 000 foreign students, one third are Chinese. A full cost year’s enrolment goes for $76 856 a pop so 5000 times that... equals 384 odd million. Not as good as the Aussies but it’s still a lazy 4 billion over a decade.

Then, on Nov 23, 2019 the staging of a panel at Columbia University discussing the topic: “Panopticism with Chinese Characteristics: Human rights violations by the Chinese Communist Party and how they affect the world” was cancelled.
The University says it was due to scheduling procedural problems. Panellists, say pressure from the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) was the real reason. The panel was set to discuss China’s “extensive matrix of digital surveillance systems, optimised for maximum social control”.
The panel linked the decision to six “similar incidents of blatant vandalism, hate speech and physical assaults from pro-Beijing Chinese students” on other campuses.

W. Ian Lipkin actually visited China in January, 2020 where, by his own admission, he has special access, claiming, "I have a different reputation, and I can go pretty much anyplace I want." Whilst there, he collected a medal "issued from the Central Government, Central Military Commission, and the State Council". The medal was to show appreciation for "working closely with scientists and officials in China" over twenty years.

In 2016, he was "honored with the China International Science and Technology Cooperation Award, presented in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, presided by President Xi Jinping."

Of all of our co-authors, Lipkin is arguably the biggest in terms of profile. Known as the Virus-hunter, he's definitely number one in terms of China guan-xi.

"At the height of the SARS outbreak in 2003, Lipkin was invited by senior Chinese scientists and officials to assess the state of the epidemic, identify gaps in science, and develop a strategy for containing the virus and curtailing infections and deaths. Once the outbreak was contained, Lipkin helped develop the institutional infrastructure to ensure China would have the resources to detect and more rapidly respond to emerging infectious threats, in part through building the Institut Pasteur in Shanghai, new national Centers for Disease Control in Beijing, and the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health. Today, he continues to consult with the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Chinese Academy of Science, and the Ministry of Health. He has also served as a consultant for a climate change program at Beijing Normal and as a visiting professor at Beijing University. Last year, the Chinese Academy of Sciences awarded funding for a collaborative project between CII and Sun Yat-Sen University in zoonotic diseases."

That's a handy resume. How many foreigners get that far in Chinese society?

Interestingly, in Feb or March it appears he contracted the virus but is now back at work.