The world is entering the age of biotechnology, a time when biology is the basis of innovation, the report says in a sober analysis, stressing that every strategic sector — including defence, healthcare, agriculture, energy, and manufacturing — can be advanced by biotechnology, but also breached by it.
The Commission’s research indicates that China is likely to follow the same playbook with biotechnology as it has with other strategic technologies, the report said. “First, they steal. Then, they scale. Once they have cornered the market, they strangle,” it said, pointing to the Chinese restrictions on gallium and germanium in 2024 that had disrupted U.S. semiconductor production.
Noting that U.S. allies and partners offer unique capabilities, the report referred to India which it says is “prioritizing” cost-effective bio-manufacturing, particularly of vaccines. “We must do more to take advantage of our partners’ unparalleled strengths, which could include entering into reciprocal data-sharing agreements or pooling demand for biotechnology products,” it said.
Particularly focussing on biotech in the defence domain, the Commission said it has every reason to believe that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will “weaponize” biotechnology. Now, with its Military-Civil Fusion strategy, the CCP aims to use biotechnology-powered troops — terming this “intelligent warfare” — to make the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) a “world-class military” by 2049. “Drone warfare will seem quaint if we are faced with genetically enhanced PLA super-soldiers with fused human and AI,” the report warned.
To be honest, I’m much less concerned with super-soldiers than with the possibility that the COVID-19 release was a test-run for something more dangerous and more targeted.