Over the past few years, inexpensive data storage coupled with advancements in supercomputers and artificial intelligence (AI) analytics have allowed the exploitation of population data in ways that megalomaniac technocrats and totalitarian dictators could only have dreamed of just a decade or two ago.
US government advisers in March said that Chinese firm BGI Group was constructing a vast bank of genomic data that, combined with AI tools, would allow China to monopolize the global pharmaceutical industry, “build” genetically enhanced soldiers and — most concerning of all — engineer pathogens to empower ethnically targeted bioweapons.
Reuters on Wednesday published a special report on BGI Group’s gene harvesting that makes for chilling reading.
BGI Group’s prenatal test, branded NIFTY (Non-Invasive Fetal TrisomY) is one of the most popular in the world and has been used to harvest genetic data from millions of women in at least 52 countries, the report says. The company reportedly stores and reanalyzes leftover blood samples and genetic data from the tests — taken by more than 8 million women around the world — to detect abnormalities such as Down syndrome in fetuses.
A review of scientific papers and company statements by Reuters found that the tests capture genetic information about the mother, which is what appears to be of interest to the Chinese military.
The report says that BGI Group has collaborated with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on at least a dozen studies since 2010, including conducting research into population traits. One such study used a PLA military supercomputer to reanalyze gene data collected from NIFTY tests to isolate specific character traits in Tibetan and Uighur minorities.
The Reuters investigation found that genomic data collected by BGI Group from women outside of China have been stored in a gene database funded by the Chinese government.
While some of the studies could have benign medical uses — such as tracking the effect of hepatitis B on different ethnicities to develop enhanced antiviral treatments — the PLA’s involvement should be a red flag, especially given China’s openly stated doctrine of “civil-military fusion.”
The PLA could use the vast database to find genetic vulnerabilities in a population — perhaps an adversary nation. A particular susceptibility to disease could be identified and then targeted with a genetically tailored bioweapon. The collaboration of civilian and PLA scientists on “gain of function” coronavirus experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology is well-documented.
China is known to have initiated a biowarfare research program in the early 1950s. In 1984, Beijing signed the Biological Weapons Convention, a disarmament treaty prohibiting signatory nations from developing, acquiring or stockpiling biological and toxin weapons, but the US intelligence community regardless continues to be concerned about PLA research on bioweapons.
A senior US Department of State official, speaking anonymously to China analyst and author Bill Gertz last year, said that classified Chinese research on biological warfare includes engineered weapons designed to attack specific ethnic groups with pathogens.
“We are looking at potential biological experiments on ethnic minorities,” the source said.
BGI Group’s collaboration with the PLA could be the tip of the iceberg. Who knows if other Chinese companies are also harvesting gene data from around the world?
Taiwan and other nations must take the threat seriously and direct resources to discovering whatever they can about the capabilities and intent of what appears to be a covert Chinese bioweapons program — before it is too late.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
I have heard people equate the government’s stance on resisting forced unification with China or the conditional reinstatement of the military court system with the rise of the Nazis before World War II. The comparison is absurd. There is no meaningful parallel between the government and Nazi Germany, nor does such a mindset exist within the general public in Taiwan. It is important to remember that the German public bore some responsibility for the horrors of the Holocaust. Post-World War II Germany’s transitional justice efforts were rooted in a national reckoning and introspection. Many Jews were sent to concentration camps not
RSS