France warned the US about the Wuhan lab in 2015

In 2015, French intelligence officials warned the United States that China had cut back on agreed collaboration when building and operating the Wuhan Institute of Virology with the French.

By 2017 the French were "were kicked out," and cooperation ended, with French officials warning the State Department they had grave concerns over Chinese motivations at the lab, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former State Department official David Asher told The Daily Caller on Monday.

"The Chinese basically sucked State into its honey pot operation to gain access to U.S. technology, knowledge, and material support. Classic. Just as they have done in every sector," Asher said. He argued State Department officials "should have shut down all cooperation."

Asher argued that when the French warned them of the Chinese backing out of collaborating on the lab, the State Department should have stopped sending U.S. federal funding to the Wuhan lab.

Between Oct. 2009 and May 2019, the U.S. Agency for International Development provided a total of $1.1 million to the EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S.-based research group that had received funding from the Department of Defense and was a subcontractor with the Wuhan lab, according to USAID.