There have been several Chinese Communist Party (CCP) linked biolabs discovered in the United States. In 2023, Jennifer Van Laar of Townhall's sister site, RedState, exposed a biolab operated by Jia Bei Zhu in Reedley, California. That lab was discovered in 2022 and Zhu was arrested in October 2023. Zhu pleaded not guilty that same month, and claimed the federal government "destroyed" his "revolutionary" work while filing $80 million in claims against Fresno County and the City of Reedley.
In August of 2024, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California announced 12 new charges against Zhu, including charges for conspiracy and wire fraud. In February of this year, federal authorities seized hundreds of samples from another illegal biolab from a home in northeast Las Vegas. That home is owned by Zhu as well. That house was reportedly used as an Airbnb, which made several people who stayed at the property deathly ill and Zhu apparently owns several properties in Nevada and California.
On March 6, the National Bioforensic Laboratory determined that the Las Vegas biolab "contained materials to create COVID and pregnancy test kits, compounds for Influenza vaccines, and human blood and urine samples."
Now the Los Angeles Times is trying to run the story as if they didn't smear investigations into the biolab back in 2023, while dismissing ties to the CCP as Internet conspiracy theories.
A code enforcement officer discovered a clandestine California biolab warehouse containing dangerous pathogens including HIV, malaria, COVID-19 and Ebola.
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) March 30, 2026
The facility was allegedly operated by a Chinese nationalhttps://t.co/zOW3SSQlWs
At the time, this is how the Los Angeles Times framed the story about the biolab's ties to China as an Internet conspiracy theory.
Never forget how the LA Times framed the Chinese biolab story back in 2023.
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) February 4, 2026
"Officials investigated, shut down the lab and ordered the mice euthanized. But after a local news story suggested the mice were bred to carry COVID-19, baseless rumors started flying online that the lab… pic.twitter.com/5N1gfb9jq9
Here's what they said:
Officials investigated, shut down the lab, and ordered the mice euthanized. But after a local news story suggested the mice were bred to carry COVID-19, baseless rumors started flying online that the lab was connected to the Chinese government and could be part of preparations for a biological attack.
Van Laar called down the thunder on the Los Angeles Times for this hypocritical about-face.
Welcome to the party, pal.
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) March 31, 2026
This was you 2.5 years ago. Retract this s*** and then we can talk https://t.co/lLHDfTBuHI pic.twitter.com/lBPY24CeyC
When the Reedley house was investigated, the Biden-administration CDC refused to do testing.
Except the CDC refused to test any of the samples in Reedley, which would have led the feds to make sure the Vegas biolab never happened.
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) February 7, 2026
Oh, and how do you regulate SECRET labs, Dina? 🙇🏻♀️ https://t.co/KAP6EZGgQQ
The Los Angeles Times cannot get away with revising history. Three years ago, they turned a blind eye to the Reedley biolab, dismissed investigations as conspiracies, and ignored the story as best they could. Now that the story is bigger, and while Zhu remains in custody, the media can no longer ignore it, and they're going to pretend their dismissal never happened.
Editor's Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
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