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.
Weeks into the craze, nobody quite knows what to make of the OpenClaw mania sweeping China, marked by viral photos of retirees lining up for installation events and users gathering in red claw hats. The queues and cosplay inspired by the “raising a lobster” trend make for irresistible China clickbait. However, the West is fixating on the least important part of the story. As a consumer craze, OpenClaw — the AI agent designed to do tasks on a user’s behalf — would likely burn out. Without some developer background, it is too glitchy and technically awkward for true mainstream adoption,
Out of 64 participating universities in this year’s Stars Program — through which schools directly recommend their top students to universities for admission — only 19 filled their admissions quotas. There were 922 vacancies, down more than 200 from last year; top universities had 37 unfilled places, 40 fewer than last year. The original purpose of the Stars Program was to expand admissions to a wider range of students. However, certain departments at elite universities that failed to meet their admissions quotas are not improving. Vacancies at top universities are linked to students’ program preferences on their applications, but inappropriate admission
On Monday, a group of bipartisan US senators arrived in Taiwan to support the nation’s special defense bill to counter Chinese threats. At the same time, Beijing announced that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had invited Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) to visit China, a move to make the KMT a pawn in its proxy warfare against Taiwan and the US. Since her inauguration as KMT chair last year, Cheng, widely seen as a pro-China figure, has made no secret of her desire to interact with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and meet with Xi, naming it a
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) took the stage at a protest rally on Sunday in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei in support of former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who has been sentenced to 17 years in jail for corruption and embezzlement. Huang told the crowd that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) had sent a message of support the previous day, saying she would be traveling from the south to Taipei: If the protest continued into the evening, she had said, she would show up. The rally was due to end
RSS