private biolabs? China haz them.

 StrategyPage has a long essay about that shoddy lab in California that was discovered not by the feds, but by a local building inspector, and the local authorities had a lot of problems getting the CDC etc. interested in finding what was being done there. 

USAToday story here. the story has sort of disappeared from the news, but a Congressional committee issued a report  last November about what this was about.

including this complaint:The CDC’s insisted that there was “no evidence” that Select Agents were within Reedley Biolab or that Zhu and UMI imported infectious agents and “insufficient evidence at this time” of legal violations. It seems to have made this claim without conducting any investigation beyond reading the labels that were in English on a limited number of the pathogenic samples.,,,

conclusion:At a minimum, the Reedley Biolab shows the profound threat that unlicensed and unknown biolabs pose to our country. At worst, this investigation revealed significant gaps in our nation’s defenses and pathogen-related regulations that present a grave national security risk that could be exploited in the future. It is therefore incumbent upon Congress and the Executive Branch to address these vulnerabilities now before it is too late.

As I said: The story sort of disappeared from the news since then.
What me worry?

So what was this all about? StrategyPage's summary here analyzes this in light of Chinese history and culture, such as the mandate of heaven, chronic corruption, and a resurgence of the war lord mindset that has plagued China for 2100 years.

This tries to explain why small private rich guys might be investing in such labs.

A case can be made that the Chinese government has been waging a covert war on America for years. At least a few of the Chinese with biowar labs in China would certainly presume government approval for creation of similar labs in America, plus that would give them far greater bragging rights and status among their peers. China’s government has lost control of its regional leaders, who are now waging private wars against America. With weapons of mass destruction. Had it been an official Chinese government biowar lab, that would have been an overt act of war. Fortunately, it wasn’t, but it is still a big problem because the California lab is unlikely to be the only one, and we absolutely dare not assume it was.

I should note that Strategy Page is not a conspiracy site, and they are more accurate than much of the MSM on what is going on inside countries where I have personal knowledge. (Philippines, Colombia, West Africa, South Africa).

Sigh.