Industrial Espionage or Paranoia ... or Retaliation

"The angle that is coming out of this I think is unfortunate. This angle of paranoia, that people are stealing and this and that, it's a bit sad, it's kind of politicizing science, because of tensions between two countries."
"A lot of people in government thought it was not good that NML [Winnipeg's National Microbiology Laboratory] was doing research. And some other people were thrilled about it."
"This  is where I could see a lot of misunderstandings and problems -- the government is good at making new policies and it's frequent that a new policy may contradict another one."
Gary Kobinger, supervisory researcher, National Microbiology Laboratory, Winnipeg

Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, research scientist, second from right, and Dr. Gary Kobinger, former chief of special pathogens, right, are two of the National Microbiology Lab scientists who created the Ebola treatment, ZMapp. Also pictured, at left, Dr. Kent Brantly and Dr. Linda Mobula, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the physician who administered ZMapp to Dr. Brantly in Liberia. (Submitted by Health Canada)

Canada has been experiencing strained political and trade relationships with China of late. Coinciding with Washington and Beijing combatively hammering out a new trade agreement between the two trading giants. Ottawa got caught in the crosshairs of American jurisprudence when it honoured an extradition request from the United States for a Chinese executive with a major Chinese communications company with worldwide tentacles. On the arrest of Huawei's Meng Wanzhou, China arrested two Canadians on suspicion of espionage activities in China.

Since then, with Ottawa advising Beijing that Ms. Meng's arrest on a U.S. warrant was lawful under a treaty that Canada signed with the U.S., and Beijing's furious demands that Canada release the executive officer of Huawei, two other Canadians have been placed on death row for drug smuggling, and Chinese import of of canola products and pork and beef products have ground to a halt, alarming the Canadian agricultural industry heavily dependent on exports to China.

To say that relations between the two nations are strained is to deliberately understate a condition of diplomatic Arctic dimensions. In the U.S., ethnic Chinese dual U.S.-Chinese scientists have been suspected of industrial and military espionage and now the growing alert over supposed and actual  Chinese expatriates and nationals interfering in and taking advantage of economic espionage and ignoring patent rights has come to the fore.

A few days ago a Canadian researcher of Chinese extraction, celebrated for her role in helping to find a potential inoculation against the dread Ebola virus was suddenly and unceremoniously removed from her position at the National Microbiology Laboratory. Her husband, also employed there as a scientist, and Dr. Xiangguo Qiu's ethnic Chinese students were escorted out of the research laboratories and an investigation by the federal police agency called.

Dr. \Qiu has been dismissed from her position on suspicion of collaboration with a Chinese company while she was engaged in working on the celebrated breakthrough Ebola drug, allowing them to copy the formula. Now, the leading biologist who was instrumental in spearheading the drug's development has made it clear that both he and his Chinese collaborator had voluntarily cooperated with the Chinese MabWorks and it was emphatically not an instance of economic espionage.

The Beijing company was itself transparent about its cooperation with the National Microbiology Lab. The drug was under patent, and MabWorks engaged in enhancing the production of the pharmaceutical, increasing its production while it remained in the experimental phase at its own expense, and in the process enabling it to be used to good effect, sparing people from death through Ebola infection. It was a signal example of medical science working across national boundaries for the good of humankind.

Dr. Kobinger, disturbed at the removal of his colleague, has called upon the federal government for an explanation. Treating a relatively rare disease like Ebola lacks the allure of a lucrative outcome to explain purported research espionage, particularly since the research is openly published and available to anyone wanting to copy it. Dr. Kobinger had himself left the lab to assume a Canada research chair at the University of Laval, and from there he has taken the position of defender of his former colleague.

Dr. Qiu along with her biologist husband Keding Cheng, with her entire research student team had been escorted from the facility on July 5 with the Public Health Agency of Canada stating it is pursuing an "administrative matter", advising the RCMP of "possible policy breaches" at the laboratory. Dr. Qiu's appointment as an unpaid adjunct professor at the University of Manitoba, meanwhile has also been suspended "pending an RCMP investigation."

The National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg is one of only a handful in North America capable of handling dangerous pathogens such as Ebola. (Trevor Brine/CBC)

So, while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government has been appealing to Canada's Western allies to condemn Beijing's outsized response to the arrest of Huawei's Meng, it would appear that Ottawa has resorted to the same kind of outrageous tactics as Beijing in harassing and delegitimizing Chinese scientists at Canadian institutions. Dr. Kobinger outlined that under his leadership he and Dr. Qiu developed "monoclonal antibodies" promising to defeat deadly Ebola.

The drug ZMapp uses two of three elements the two scientists discovered which is being developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. of California, still awaiting regulatory approval. Dr. Kobinger emphasizes that despite having cooperated with Beijing's MabWorks after it used online data in patents copying the treatment, he rejects the theory that Dr. Qiu would have helped Beijing illegally acquire intellectual property and trade secrets.The company, he emphasized, collaborated both with the Canadian researchers and Mapp Biopharmaceutical. 

"Canada is facing threats from foreign governments seeking to steal intellectual property and that could include state-funded research."
"The two big things I want to see is whether or not these individuals are charged with crimes by the RCMP ...that will give us a lot of information about what is really at stake here."
"China and Canada's relationship right now stems from China using espionage to advance its strategic interests, be that its security interests or its economic interests. How Canada deals with that going forward, especially given that we have two Canadians who remain in Chinese custody, will be very interesting to watch."
 Leah West, national security law, Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. Carleton University, Ottawa

Xiangguo Qiu works in level-4 containment at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. (CBC News)