FIRST ON FOX: An independent watchdog agency found that U.S. taxpayer funds flowed to Chinese entities known for conducting coronavirus research, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology and an arm of the People’s Liberation Army, ahead of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
The findings are included in a Government Accountability Office report titled “NIH Could Take Additional Actions to Manage Risks Involving Foreign Subrecipients,” first obtained by Fox News Digital.
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The GAO, a nonpartisan agency which investigates federal spending, found that U.S. taxpayer dollars from two federal agencies–the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)–directed funds to American universities and the non-profit EcoHealth Alliance.
The report found those funds were subsequently redirected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology as well as the Wuhan University and the Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS), which is an arm of the People’s Liberation Army of the Chinese Communist Party.
Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan as members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus make a visit to the institute in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province on Feb. 3, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images)
The report comes after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, lead Republicans in demanding that the GAO conduct a “comprehensive accounting of all public funds the United States Government disbursed” to the Chinese entities from January 2014 through December 2021. Turner and Wenstrup made that request to the GAO in April 2022.
“The selected entities are government institutions or laboratories in China that conduct work on infectious diseases, including pandemic viruses, and have had actions…
