2023/07/12
The Ministry of National Defense issues a press release refuting reports by United Daily News saying that "the United States urges our country to invest in the construction of a new P4 laboratory for the development of biological warfare agents" and its incorrect citation of military language (July 12, 2023)
Press release of the Ministry of National Defense
Time of release: July 12, 2023 at 10:40
In response to reports by United Daily News saying that "the United States urges our country to invest in the construction of a new type of P4 laboratory to develop biological warfare agents" and related reports, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) stated today (12th) that the so-called "meeting minutes" inappropriately cited military language such as "tank", "each military headquarters", and others. The reports lack coherence and consistency, and the phrasing has created false information, showing clearly that they are not true.
The MND stated that it had clearly pointed out that primary tasks of the Preventive Medicine Institute of the Medical Affairs Bureau are to carry out the detection, protection, and treatment of pathogens against infectious diseases when the newspaper checked to verify the "meeting minutes." They reported instead that "our country had followed the request of the United States to develop biological warfare agents, and planned to set up a new biosafety level 4 laboratory (P4), and the MND has already completed planning." The Institute will mainly focus on developing detection reagents against biological warfare agents to strengthen our detection capabilities for defensive biological warfare agents. The level-4 laboratory is chiefly designed for the detection, protection, and treatment for pathogens of infectious diseases, and a research and development facility is currently underway to accommodates biosafety standards. As such, rumors that "the United States is suspected to have urged our country to develop a biological warfare agent" and "the United States will assist in planning and reviewing the lab" are untrue.
The MND further pointed out that many more fabrications are found in the contents of the "Statements by the Ministry of National Defense" from the so-called complete "meeting minutes" released by the newspaper today, while the use of phrasing such as "tank", "each army headquarters" and "arms procurement" are not regular military terms used by the Armed Forces. The Armed Forces has implemented administrative neutrality for years, which is widely recognized by all parties. It seldom uses wording such as "The Party" – this choice of diction usually employed by CCP armed forces. As such, making use of such "records" as evidence for news reports does not align with the objective and fair social expectations from the media, and can damage the image of the Armed Forces. Hence, the MND urges the media to issue a correction of the reports.