Fears grow over China’s bizarre Ukraine conspiracy theory as invasion escalates

China is spruiking a bizarre conspiracy theory experts fear could be used to help justify Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.

China has doubled down on a bizarre Russian conspiracy theory which experts believe could be part of a plot to justify the invasion of Ukraine.

This week, a Chinese official accused the US of running biolabs in the eastern European nation, claiming the situation was “dangerous” and that the “safety” of the alleged labs were at risk.

Stream the latest on the invasion of Ukraine from the world’s most trusted news sources with Flash. 25+ news channels in 1 place. New to Flash? Try 1 month free. Offer ends October 31, 2022 >

“Under the current circumstances, for the sake of the health and safety of people in Ukraine, the surrounding region and the whole world, we call on all relevant parties to ensure the safety of these laboratories,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian during a recent press conference.

“In particular, the US, as the party with the best knowledge of these laboratories, should release relevant details as soon as possible, including what viruses are stored and what research has been conducted.

“What is the real intention of the US? What exactly did it do?”

Mr Zhao claimed America’s biological military activities in Ukraine were just the “tip of the iceberg”, following reports from Russian media outlets earlier this week which alleged that a network of more than 30 biological labs were operating in Ukraine at the request of the US Department of Defence’s Threat Reduction Agency.

However, the bizarre conspiracy theory seems to have originated from Russia back in early 2020.

In April that year, the US embassy in Ukraine issued a statement hitting back at the rumours, slamming them as “Russian disinformation regarding the strong US-Ukrainian partnership to reduce biological threats”.

“The US Department of Defence’s Biological Threat Reduction Program works with the Ukrainian government to consolidate and secure pathogens and toxins of security concern in Ukrainian government facilities, while allowing for peaceful research and vaccine development,” the statement reads.

“We also work with our Ukrainian partners to ensure Ukraine can detect and report outbreaks caused by dangerous pathogens before they pose security or stability threats.

“Our joint efforts help to ensure that dangerous pathogens do not fall into the wrong hands.”

The US Department of Defence has also worked with Ukraine and other former Soviet Union nations since 1991 to dismantle weapons of mass destruction left by the former regime, as part of the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program.

The program aims to “support defence and military co-operation with the objective of preventing proliferation,” the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation explains.

China has repeatedly refused to condemn Vladimir Putin’s invasion. Picture: Andrea Verdelli/Getty Images

The misinformation regarding the alleged labs has become so widespread that Britain’s Defence Ministry has also weighed in.

“Since the end of February there has been a notable intensification of Russian accusations that Ukraine is developing nuclear or biological weapons,” the ministry said in a tweet yesterday.

“These narratives are long standing but are currently likely being amplified as part of a retrospective justification for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

Andrew Weber, a senior fellow at the Council on Strategic Risks and a member of the Arms Control Association board of directors, also recently told AFP that the US Defence Department “has never had a biological laboratory in Ukraine”.

Meanwhile, the US has also confirmed it was working with Ukraine to stop Russian troops from getting their hands on biological research material, amid fears it could be used to create bioweapons.

“Ukraine has biological research facilities, which in fact we are now quite concerned Russian troops, Russian forces, may be seeking to gain control of,” senior State Department official Victoria Nuland said during a recent hearing, according to AFP.

Britain’s Defence Ministry believes the claims are being used for “retrospective justification for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”. Picture: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP

But it’s not the first time China has spread disinformation about laboratories.

Last year, ahead of the release of US President Joe Biden’s probe into the origins of Covid-19, China claimed the deadly virus had started in the Fort Detrick military base in Maryland in the US.

It was in response to the widespread belief that the pandemic emerged following a leak in a lab in Wuhan in China’s Hubei province, and at the time, Zhao Lijian – the same Chinese official now spruiking the Ukraine biolab theory – pushed for a probe into Fort Detrick.

The world calls on the US to admit a probe into #FortDetrick lab. pic.twitter.com/ZJN3qNEPEO

— Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) July 20, 2021

And in the 1980s, the Soviet Union also incorrectly claimed AIDS originated from that same military base.

“Since then, Fort Detrick has become a trope – a recurring antagonist dusted off every few years to play the villain in the latest virus-related disinformation drama,” Alliance for Securing Democracy analyst Bret Schafer wrote last year.