Previously, an infectious clone of a novel merbecovirus was described contaminating pre-pandemic rice sequencing datasets from Wuhan. Of particular concern was evidence of an additional infectious clone chimera that incorporated the MERS-CoV spike gene into the novel merbecovirus backbone, which would be expected to increase infectivity in humans due to enhanced binding to the human DPP4 receptor and the presence of a furin cleavage site. Sequences flanking the novel merbecovirus genome are shown here to match pBAC-CMV, a plasmid constructed by Dr Zhengli Shi of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The construct is shown to be circular and so transformable and transfective. The RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) sequence of the infectious clone has a 100 % match with a RdRp sequence generated by Shi, ‘isolate 152762’, sampled from lesser bamboo bat Tylonycteris pachypus, collected from Southern China, and published in Latinne et al (2020). Additional evidence is presented of genetic manipulation of the chimera MERS-CoV spike sequence using No See’m technology and the BsaI restriction enzyme. The new information affirms that the infectious clones were made by Shi, prior to contaminating samples from other labs during preparation and sequencing. The construction of the chimera may violate the Biological Weapons Convention, as a protective purpose is elusive. NIAID grant R01AI110964, awarded to Dr Peter Daszak of EcoHealth Alliance, funded the creation of pBAC-CMV and, with USAID PREDICT, sampling of isolate 152762 and generation of its RdRp sequence, thereby contributing directly to dangerous Gain of Function work. These observations confirm undeclared and dangerous Gain of Function experimentation on novel bat coronaviruses from Southern China by Zhengli Shi in Wuhan immediately prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.