The Department of Education has asked the University of Alabama to provide records of certain transactions with some China-funded companies and institutions, including one where COVID-19 allegedly started.
A letter dated Dec. 22 was sent from the department’s office of the general counsel to the university president. In it, the school is asked to provide records of any contracts, gifts or donation agreements with the Chinese entities listed by the department, per The Epoch Times on Thursday.
The list includes Huawei Technologies Co., Chengdu University of Technology, Jilin University and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
"It appears that UA has failed to report an alleged partnership with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in Wuhan, China," Principal Deputy General Counsel Reed Rubinstein said in the letter.
Trump administration intelligence has said it traced the coronavirus outbreak to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in the city, near a wet market from where other people say coronavirus originated.
The university denied such a partnership and said it had alerted the Department of Education. It added it reached out to the Wuhan institute but had received no response.
"The UA reference on the Wuhan Institute of Virology website was brought to our attention earlier this year," the University of Alabama told The Epoch Times in a Dec. 23 email. "At that time, we reviewed any possible related institutional records to determine the basis for the reference.
''We found no ties or connection between UA and WIV, and no reason for UA to be listed on the website."
Section 117 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 requires institutions of higher education to report any gifts or contracts "from or with a foreign source," Rubinstein’s letter said.
The letter gave the university 30 days to submit "true copies of each gift or donation agreement, contract, and/or conditional gift or donation agreement" with the companies or institutions on the department's list.
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