Key Points
- China is using biotechnologies like gene editing to enhance its military.
- China already uses biometric surveillance tools and facial recognition to track dissidents and journalists.
- The Biden administration has imposed sanctions on 37 Chinese biotechnology companies that have ties to this research.
Sounds like China may be developing its own super soldier program.
According to reports from the Financial Times, the U.S. has blacklisted China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences and several affiliated biotechnology research institutes for allegedly helping the CCP develop “brain-control” weapons for the military; the Biden administration, feeling this proposes a threat to national security, has responded with sanctions.
“New intelligence shows China is using technologies like gene editing, and brain machine interfaces to enhance military capabilities and control its own people, machines that could allow a Chinese commando to discharge a weapon with just a thought, not a trigger finger,” Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin said. “This month the Biden administration targeted the emerging threat by levying sanctions on 37 Chinese biotechnology companies that have ties to this research that experts say include so called ‘mind control weapons.’”
“The Pentagon says Beijing already uses these technologies, including biometric surveillance tools and facial recognition to track dissidents and journalists and to suppress the Uyghurs,” Griffin added.
Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has made it clear the U.S. will not follow suit, putting our service members in danger.
“We’re not going to place our own soldiers, sailors, and airmen at risk, which is what the intelligence tells us the Chinese are willing to do,” Ratcliffe said. “They want to advance at any costs, including those that are harmful to their own population.”
The U.S. Commerce Department released the following statement earlier this month:
“Today, the U.S. Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) took action to address the ongoing threats to U.S. national security and foreign policy presented by the People’s Republic of China (PRC)’s efforts to develop and deploy biotechnology and other technologies for military applications and human rights abuses. BIS is also taking action against entities operating in the PRC, Georgia, Malaysia, and Turkey for diverting or attempting to divert U.S. items to Iran’s military programs”
“The U.S. will continue to stand strong against efforts by the PRC and Iran to turn tools that can help humanity prosper into implements that threaten global security and stability,” said Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo.
Maybe Sec. Raimondo has what it takes to be tough on China, after all.
