WASHINGTON
Just days after President Biden signed an executive order on September 12 aimed at boosting the U.S. biotech industry in response to China’s challenges, U.S. media reported that a Chinese biotech company had bought a large tract of land in Florida, the U.S., to use. To breed experimental animals and research. The news has aroused concern and concern from all walks of life.
On September 17, the Florida local newspaper Citrous County Chronicle reported that the Chinese pharmaceutical company JOINN Laboratories purchased a 1,400-acre piece of land in Levy County, Florida, and plans to build a primate quarantine facility. and breeding establishments.
According to the land sales records in Levi County, a company called JOINN Laboratories CA Inc, a subsidiary of Zhaoyan New Medicine, purchased the land for $5.5 million. The land itself is used for agricultural land. According to local media reports, JOINN Laboratories CA is trying to apply to rezone the land for a change of use.
Levi County confirmed the land sale in a statement sent to VOA. "Records on the Levie County Real Estate Appraisal website indicate that L&T Cattle & Timber, a Florida limited liability company, sold the land to a California company, JIINN Laboratories CA Inc, on August 4, 2022," the statement said.
According to Bloomberg records , JOINN Laboratories CA Inc was founded in 2013. The company is engaged in biological research and development, and its parent company is Zhaoyan Xinyao, a Chinese pharmaceutical company.
Between June and August of this year, county staff received informal inquiries to try to establish a primate quarantine on the land, said Jacqueline Martin, human resources manager for the Levie County Commission. facilities and research laboratories. The staff verified that the land is currently classified as a forestry/agricultural residential area, and experimental research is not allowed.
"We have also received further inquiries regarding the use of the land and changes to zoning, but staff do not believe this request will be granted," she said in an email to media. Nor have we approved any applications for land use, zoning or building permits for such facilities.
the U.S. Washington-based Center for a New American Security Martijn Rasser, director of the technology and national security program at the Center for a New American Security, said there would be no national security concern if Zhaoyan New Drug was just using the land to test lab monkeys.
“The broader question, however, is whether it would be wise for Chinese biotech companies to operate such facilities in the United States, given the opaqueness of these companies’ activities and their ties to the People’s Liberation Army,” he told VOA.
According to public information , Feng Yuxia, the chairman of Zhaoyan New Drug, has a US green card and graduated from the PLA Military Sciences School of Medicine with a major in pharmacology. From August 1992 to August 1995, he worked in the Institute of Toxicology and Drugs of the Academy of Military Medical Sciences of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
Zuo Conglin, general manager of Zhaoyan New Drug, graduated from the Institute of Toxic Drugs, Academy of Military Medical Sciences of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. From July 1989 to November 1996, he worked as an assistant researcher at the Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine.
VOA was unable to obtain contact details for JOINN Laboratories CA Inc. The reporter called its parent company, Zhaoyan Xinyao, to seek confirmation of its business plan, but received no response by the time of writing.
Just Thursday (September 22), Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order prohibiting state and local governments from procuring any technology prohibited by the federal government based on national security concerns and Directs state management to take steps to ensure that goods and services used by state and local governments are not exploited by "states of special concern." The executive order specifically names China, but also includes Iran, Russia, Cuba and other countries "hostile to U.S. interests."
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