Hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars have gone to China. Two GOP lawmakers are trying to find out why.

From National Review. Senator Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) and Representative Mike Gallagher (R., Wis.) are calling on the Department of Defense inspector general to begin an investigation into U.S. defense dollars making their way into China and ultimately funding high-risk laboratory research on pathogens similar to the one that began the coronavirus pandemic. …

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The pair have asked the Pentagon IG to determine why — according to a review of government receipts they conducted with the nonprofit Open the Books watchdog group — over $490 million in U.S. taxpayer money has gone to Chinese organizations since 2017. …

Ernst told National Review that the probe, which would be relevant regardless of current events given a broad lack of transparency, is especially critical given the likelihood of COVID-19 having been developed in and leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Technology. In fact, a 2018 grant proposal demonstrates that EcoHealth Alliance, a New York-based research organization and onetime beneficiary of National Institutes of Health funding, planned to engineer a virus similar to SARS-CoV-2 with the Wuhan lab, though the funding application was denied by DARPA.

“Taxpayers deserve to know how much of their money is being shipped to China and why Washington continues collecting and creating deadly super viruses — both of which could pose threats to our national security,” Ernst said. …

The investigation, in addition to gain-of-function virus research conducted in China, will focus on U.S. tax dollars going toward Chinese military technology. …

In an April 2023 report, the Government Accountability Office concluded that, though some numbers are available, it is impossible to determine the total amount of taxpayer money being sent to China given a failure of government agencies to adequately track that money’s destination. …

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(Excerpt from National Review. Photo Credit: sharrocks/Getty Images Signature via Canva Pro)