U.S.
Diplomats Concerned about China’s ‘Anal Swab’ COVID
Testing
China seems to have been messing with our diplomats, and we’re digging up
the details, which the Biden administration seems intent on concealing.
We received eight
pages of communications from the U.S. Department of State revealing
concerns by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing that U.S. diplomatic personnel were
being asked to submit to an anal swab COVID testing policy. The redacted
documents show that at as many as two people were either asked or required
to take an anal test for COVID by the Chinese government.
We obtained the records in response to a FOIA lawsuit
against the State Department for non-identifying records of U.S. diplomatic
personnel being subjected to invasive COVID-19 anal swab tests by the
Chinese government (Judicial
Watch v U.S. Dept of State (No. 1:21-cv-02111)). We sued after the
State Department failed to respond to a June 18, 2021, FOIA request for:
All records about US diplomatic personnel in or seeking to enter China
being subjected to anal swab tests for the COVID-19 virus, including all
complaints and communications regarding such testing. This request does not
seek any personal identifying information of US diplomatic personnel that
may have been subjected to such testing.
On January 25, 2021, an unidentified general services officer in the U.S.
Embassy, Beijing, sent emails
to personnel evidently under quarantine after traveling to China under the
subject line “Testing Guidance:”
Sorry for the strange questions, but I was directed by embassy management
to survey our people and ensure we are not being asked to participate in
the more invasive testing procedures.
The sender also writes:
There’s no good way to ask this, but has any health authority asked you
or your spouse to conduct an anal swab test? The embassy obviously does not
authorize or permit this type of testing on diplomats, but others have been
asked so I need to verify everyone’s experience.
The testers may also ask to do an “environmental test” where they enter
the residence and swab drinking glasses, furniture, etc. This is also not
permitted. They may swab the outside
of the doorknob, but nothing internal. [Emphasis in the original.]
For the record, our agreement is for nasal and/or throat swabs only. If you
are asked to undergo either of the above or any other that seems
inappropriate, please refuse and contact us immediately. We will escalate
to [China’s] MFA/FAO [foreign area officer] and go from there.
One recipient responds
on January 26:
No, I have had no unusual requests. I received a nasal and throat swab when
I arrived in Shanghai and just a throat swab before departing.
Beginning at 10:34 p.m. on January 26, 2021, another unidentified sender
emails to an unidentified recipient under Subject Line, “Test:”
[Redacted] please call me at your convenient time [redacted]. Below text
message came from [redacted]. This is not good!”
At 10:39, the recipient responds:
This is becoming so non diplomatic status testing. Disgusting. I hope the
GSO [general services officer] and VIP Beijing visits can do something
about this. I am so disgusted right now.
The sender responds at 11:49 a.m. the next day: “At this point, if they
will insist the anal test, we would like to just go back to the
States.”
Another recipient of the original “Testing Guidance” email responds on
January 26: “Thanks. I am hoping for a smooth covid test and release on
Friday.”
On January 26, an unidentified sender responds to the original “Test
Guidance” email:
That is indeed a very strange test and first time we’ve heard as
well.
Fortunately, the tests we had at the Shanghai airports was just nose swab
and one at Shanghai hotel on our 14th day was just throat swab.
Do you have a good number we can call that we will definitely get a
response right away once they come in for the test on Friday, January 29th?
Last Friday, I tried to call 9 to 10 a.m. to be connected to anyone in the
VIP visits and no one answered the office number and the mobile number same
thing when we got inside the LMQC unit at 2:30 I started calling to inquire
more guidelines and I was not able to talk to anyone.
The original sender of the “Test Guidance” email responds:
Thanks for confirming. Generally speaking, try calling the Embassy main
line and you can ask for my extension of [redacted]. If you can’t reach
me, ask for the Duty Officer of GSO secretary.
GSO isn’t setup for 24/7 call service, but if you reach a Duty Officer,
you can ask for me or one of the other GSOs.
On January 27, another recipient of the “Test
Guidance” email notifies his “team:”
Team – FYI. [Redacted] being asked for anal swab and environmental test.
Can Housing contact [redacted]? I’ll have VIP contact FAO ASAP.
On March 4, a redacted sender emails
a redacted recipient in the State Department’s VIP Visits Section under
the Subject Line, “Swabs, swabs, and more swabs” (citing a Reuters
article):
I hadn’t heard this rule before:
Travelers flying into Shanghai must undertake a full battery of tests
including anal swabs, if more than five people on their airplane test
positive for the virus, state media reported, citing one of the local CDC
staff.
In response to this email, the recipient appears to email another person in
the VIP Visits section about the new Chinese rule:
This is certainly different and a variation on the “close contact”
rule.
VIP – please check with FAO again on this. Seems to be a CDC rule and
given our history with close contacts and following hotel separations, want
to make sure the MFA/FAO understand this is not acceptable for our people
regardless of the reason.
The recipient of this email responds:
“Just checked with Shanghai FAO, for in-bound diplomats who’re close
contact to someone tested positive upon arrival, they will still quarantine
in the Wyndham Hotel, but with one additional NAT test [Nucleic Acid
Test].
On March 5, the VIP Visits sender emails the apparently same recipient:
Just checked with my contact from the PEK [Beijing International Capital
Airport] customs. Airport only does nasal swab and throat swab. According
to some Chinese social media, international travelers are required to get
anal tests during centralized quarantine. It could happen on Day 3, Day 7,
Day 14 or Day 21. Some people were tested once and some were twice. Samples
were collected by medical staff or travelers themselves or from a fecal
sample.
The recipient responds:
Thanks [redacted]. Interesting that there’s no central policy on this
given all the media attention and spin. Please keep me undated if anything
changes.
It took six months and a federal lawsuit to confirm that our embassy in
Beijing was concerned about the Chinese government’s invasive anal swab
and other COVID testing of our diplomatic personnel – at that as many as
two people were asked to submit to a test. Our diplomatic personnel were
harassed in a reprehensible way by the Chinese government, and the Biden
administration seems to have done little in response – except to cover it
up.
U.S. Invests $1.5 Mil to Help Salvadoran Police Deal with COVID-19
Stress
Joe Biden and his leftist minders don't just have a carefree attitude
toward the border. Rather, they seem intent on dismantling it. Witness
their recent appointment of a new Customs and Border Protection
commissioner who is a believer in sanctuary cities and whose appointment
was a further
blow to the already law morale of border agents.
But don’t worry about police morale. We’re taking care of that in …
El Salvador. Our Corruption Chronicles blog reports
on this clown show:
While local law enforcement agencies around the United States weather
extensive budget cuts, the federal government is dedicating $1.5 million to
assist police in El Salvador with challenges and stress created by
COVID-19. The goal is to help the Central American nation’s 26,966-member
National Civil Police (PNC) asses its role and capacities during a crisis
and efficiently provide training to manage a public health emergency like
the pandemic. “The training will particularly focus on public health
orders, personal and workplace safety measures, education in regards to
transmission and proper treatment, and management of operational
continuity,” according to a grant
announcement made public this month.
The document explains that in March 2020, the first case of COVID-19 was
identified in El Salvador. With no immunity and no vaccine available to
prevent infection in the impoverished country of about 6.5 million,
COVID-19 has created challenges not only for the public health sector, but
also for law enforcement agencies. To support Salvadoran law enforcement
during the pandemic, American taxpayers will fund measures that will
strengthen police programs to maintain control during lockdowns and enforce
travel bans and social distancing rules. “The added support requirements
created additional demands for security services and exposed police
personnel to higher risk of infection,” the U.S. writes in the grant
document. “In addition, because regular duties related to policing
operations do not abate during the crisis, security sector personnel faced
greater strain on resources and high levels of stress.”
Money for the initiative will flow through the State Department’s Bureau
of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), which was
created in the late 70s to reduce drug trafficking into the U.S. from Latin
America. In fiscal year 2022 the State Department requested $456.8
million for INL programs it claims strengthen the rule of law, human
rights protections, law enforcement capacity, anti-corruption activities,
and other critical efforts around the globe. In this case the allocation
will enhance El Salvador’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security’s
capacity of preparedness for a public health crisis by efficiently
providing essential public safety services, maintaining public order, and
addressing additional challenges faced during such emergency. Among the
requirements for grant recipients is that they identify stresses on officer
wellness and police resources in the PNC, which stands for Policia National
Civil in Spanish.
Back home in the U.S. police departments are enduring major budget cuts as
part of a leftist movement ignited by George Floyd’s May 2020 death in
Minneapolis. In the last year more than a dozen cities slashed
police funding or decreased the number of officers, according to a
probe conducted by a national news agency. They include the nation’s two
largest cities—Los Angeles and New York—which eliminated $150 million
and $1 billion respectively from their police budget. Other cities that
drastically cut police funding include Austin, Seattle, San Francisco,
Baltimore, Portland, Salt Lake City and Philadelphia. Washington D.C.
decreased its police budget by $15 million. Predictably, there has been a
rise in crime, motivating some cities to partially reverse police
defunding. Even New York’s outgoing leftist mayor, Bill de Blasio,
announced plans to reinstate
$92 million for a new precinct and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf recently said
she’ll work to reverse cuts to her city’s police department amid a
spike in homicides and violence in the northern California city.
At the federal level, money keeps flowing to questionable foreign and
domestic law enforcement initiatives. That includes $200,000
to advance “gender equality” in Costa Rica’s police forces by
hiring more female cops. The funds also helped pay for the Central American
nation’s first “institutional meeting of women leaders in gender
matters” to help create a national agenda for the “empowerment of the
police forces in the promotion of gender equity and prevention of gender
violence in all its forms.” A few months ago a Clinton community policing
program received $33
million from the government to advance a nationwide effort that
includes tolerance, diversity, and anti-bias training as well as crisis
intervention teams and de-escalation training. Former President Bill
Clinton created the program, known as Office of Community Oriented Policing
Services (COPS), to support “creative” approaches to preventing crime
and promoting safe communities.
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