The Pentagon’s watchdog agency will audit more than $50 million in grants the US provided to Chinese pandemic pathogens research institutions between 2014 and 2023, The Post has learned, following a pressure campaign by Sen. Joni Ernst.
The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General informed Ernst (R-Iowa) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) that it was formally investigating the funding to Chinese research labs or other nations “designed to enhance pathogens of pandemic potential,” a letter exclusively obtained by The Post shows.
“We will keep you apprised of our progress on this reporting requirement,” the letter from Inspector General Robert P. Storch reads, referencing an amendment put by the lawmakers into the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
The audit covers any US taxpayer funding “used to fund research or experiments that could have reasonably resulted in the enhancement of any coronavirus, influenza, Nipah, Ebola, or other pathogen of pandemic potential or chimeric versions of such a virus or pathogen in the People’s Republic of China or any other foreign country” — money which Ernst accused the Pentagon of “blindly giving away.”
“The Department of Defense should defend the nation, not support research with the potential to do us harm,” she told The Post in a statement.
“While bureaucrats are blindly giving away taxpayer funds, China doesn’t even have to steal our research,” Ernst added. “It’s clear Americans deserve a detailed inventory of all the dangerous dollars sent overseas, which is why I’ve launched an investigation to track down every cent.”
The Iowa senator has also demanded answers from other federal agencies this year about US-funded research abroad on bird flu and other “high-risk pathogens.”
Ernst and Gallagher requested “a comprehensive review” of the defense grants in January — including those linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the controversial lab at the center of the origin debate over COVID-19.
“We may never get answers about what really happened in Wuhan from Dr. Fauci, EcoHealth or China, but this investigation enables us to pinpoint where another man-made pandemic could possibly originate and prevent that from happening,” Ernst said.
“As more evidence emerges that our own tax dollars are advancing the interests of our adversaries, it’s clear we need greater transparency and accountability of how, why, and especially where our money is going.”
Through a joint investigation with the taxpayer watchdog OpenTheBooks, Ernst uncovered last May that the US provided more than $490 to Chinese groups between 2017 and 2022, of which $51.6 million
“Due to the lack of accuracy and completeness of federal spending data, only the DOD OIG has the capabilities to conduct these investigations,” the lawmakers told Storch before laying out past attempts to quantify the topline amount.
In May 2023, Ernst’s office announced that a joint investigation with taxpayer watchdog OpenTheBooks found more than $490 million in US funds flowed to Chinese groups, companies and research organizations between 2017 and 2022, of which $51.6 million came from the Department of Defense.
The most high-profile of those grants went to the Manhattan-based EcoHealth Alliance, which secured more than $1.4 million in funding to conduct experiments on SARS-like viruses at the infamous Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Reports have since shown that some of those Pentagon-backed researchers in China later shared sensitive information about advanced artificial intelligence initiatives with Beijing, according to Newsweek.
