CABLE · 19 January 2018
Cable: China Opens First Bio Safety Level 4 Laboratory
Provenance: Document number <b>18 BEIJING 138</b> · American Embassy Beijing to SecState Washington · DTG 190739Z JAN 18 · precedence Routine · signed BRANSTAD · 5 pages.
The earlier of the two 2018 cables, and the one item 65 cites as its reference A. It reports the opening of China’s first BSL-4 laboratory and names two constraints on it.
The facility is described as state-of-the-art, but "its current productivity is limited by a shortage of the highly trained technicians and investigators required to safely operate a BSL-4 laboratory and a lack of clarity in related Chinese government policies and guidelines."
The recommendation: China must invest in the expertise needed to operate the facility safely, and "government BSL research decision-making processes need to be more transparent" so international partners and Chinese scientists can be confident oversight meets global standards. To reach full operation, China is likely to need further technical assistance from the international community.
Background: the SARS outbreak of 2002–03 produced 8,098 cases and 774 deaths across 37 countries per the WHO, with a 9.6% fatality rate in China — which the cable says convinced China to prioritise international cooperation on infectious disease.
The lab was built with the Jean Merieux BSL-4 Laboratory in Lyon, took eleven years and $44 million, completed 31 January 2015, and was accredited in February 2017. It occupies four floors and over 32,000 square feet.
Beyond accreditation the lab needs permission from the National Health and Family Planning Commission for each pathogen. Permission had been granted for three — Ebola, Nipah, and Xinjiang haemorrhagic fever — but the government had not allowed WIV to import Ebola viruses for study, leaving scientists frustrated at holding a permission they could not use. Some WIV scientists said it was unclear how the Commission decides which viruses may be studied.
Item 66 of the ODNI COVID-19 document release of 18 June 2026, held complete and readable in the V.A.D.E.S. archive at DEFROST.WORLD.