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MND denies report of U.S. requesting Taiwan to produce bio-weapons

ROC Central News Agency

07/09/2023 10:00 PM

Taipei, July 9 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense (MND) on Sunday denied a story by a local news media outlet that said the United States has asked Taiwan to develop weaponized biological agents.

The ministry issued the rebuttal in a statement that addressed the report in the United Daily News (UDN) published earlier Sunday.

In the report, the UDN said the U.S. requested the MND's National Defense Medical Center to secretly develop the ability to research and develop viruses for use in the production of bio-weapons, citing the minutes of a secret meeting held by the government on June 23, 2022.

According to the UDN, the request from the U.S. was addressed at that gathering and at another secret meeting in January 2023.

The UDN reported that an MND representative said the ministry had completed preliminary plans to construct a new Biosafety Level 4 (P4) laboratory to handle the development of bio-weapons as requested by the U.S.

On Sunday evening, however, the MND responded that the idea that the U.S. was urging Taiwan to create bio-weapons was untrue and that the mission of the medical center was to detect, protect and treat pathogens of infectious diseases.

The center also simultaneously develops reagents that can detect bio-agents to strengthen Taiwan's ability to detect biological weapons, it said.

The MND said its development of nuclear, biological and chemical warfare readiness has been built around defense, and that the center's planned P4 lab was designed with the purpose of detection, protection and treatment.

According to the ministry, its Medical Affairs Bureau is planning to construct a next-generation biosafety site for research and development to further bolster bio-warfare defense readiness and pandemic prevention.

In terms of international law, the Republic of China (Taiwan) signed the United Nations' Biological Weapons Convention, which prohibits countries from "developing, stockpiling or using biological and toxin weapons."

It has since been removed from the convention after the R.O.C. was expelled from the United Nations, but it continues to abide by the pledge, according to the ministry.

(By Matt Yu and James Lo)

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