Wuhan Lab. Why is the US funding any kind of research in China???

 The TV is now discussing the US grant to the Wuhan Lab and what it was for.  Many people and National Institute of Health (NIH) say the grant was to do dangerous "gain of function" research.  Dr. Fauci denies this. My question is why were US taxpayer funds sent to a Chinese lab rather than an American lab?  American labs offer access to the raw experimental data, chance to interview the researchers, in general a necessary openness.  Chinese labs do what the Chinese government tells them to do.  In the case of Corona virus, which we think was created in the Wuhan lab, certainly a vast embarrassment to China, the CCP closes the doors, keeps foreign investigators out, conceals or destroys the lab results, and won't allow interviews with the researchers.  So why did US funding go to China?  Was it that the Chinese would perform "gain of function" research that US labs won't?  The Obama administration forbid "gain of function" research because it is very dangerous, and we don't want the know the results.  Gain of function research fiddles with the genes of the virus, bacterium, whatever to see what happens.  It often happens that the modified pathogen becomes much more deadly.