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Military admits to culturing anthrax

Taiwan's military admitted yesterday to culturing potentially deadly bacteria in its medical laboratories, but maintained that it has never tried to develop weapons-grade anthrax agents.

According to military officials, there's a great difference between culturing anthrax bacteria and developing biological weapons using anthrax as the active agent.

"Every major military and civilian hospital on the island has the ability to culture anthrax bacteria in its laboratories," said Colonel Chu Chi-hung (朱紀洪), a deputy department chief with the Military Medical Bureau under the Ministry of National Defense.

"But the military has never launched research into developing anthrax as a weapon."

Chu made the statement at a regular defense ministry briefing yesterday in response to a French newspaper report that claimed Taiwan is one of four Asian countries that has the ability to produce biological or chemical weapons.

The other three Asian countries named were China, North Korea and India, a Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday, quoting the French report.

The defense ministry called the report false and said the armed forces have no plans to produce, own or use nuclear, biological or chemical (NBC) weapons.

But officials could not explain why Taiwan was listed alongside China and North Korea -- which are widely acknowledged as having NBC weapons research and development programs.

A defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that culturing anthrax bacteria was quite different from developing weapons-grade agents.

"It is not technically difficult to culture anthrax bacteria in a laboratory. But to turn the bacteria into deadly weapons is not easy without considerable expertise in biochemistry," the official said.

"Anthrax bacteria in their natural state do not pose a mortal threat to humans. To turn them into a deadly weapon, they need to be introduced into the human body. An anthrax agent in powder form can best serve that purpose," he said.

"But the powder has to be very fine to achieve that. It must be engineered so that it's unaffected by static electricity, thereby ensuring that the particles stay aloft long enough to be inhaled by as many people as possible," he said.

"These are just two technical difficulties in the production of anthrax agents. Whether Taiwan has the ability to produce these weapons can be gauged from our current level of ability in bioengineering," he said.

Meanwhile, the military yesterday for the first time displayed personal protective suits and other equipment designed to be used in NBC-contaminated environments.

The suits provide protection against simultaneous exposure to nuclear, biological and chemical agents, according to the military. One of the NBC suits featured a battery-powered filtration system that provides the wearer with clean air for up to eight hours.

The items are owned by the Preventive Medical Research Institute under the Military Medical Bureau, which has been shrouded in secrecy because of its role in military-related biological studies.

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