If the Chinese Reds get their way, the Face of Dr. Fu Manchu might not be a tall tale of global intrigues and terror.
The legatees of mass-murderer Mao Tse-Tung are fiddling with the human genome to create an army of super soldiers, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Friday.
Ratcliffe’s alarming news reprises a frightening account about mad Chinese scientists published last year by the Jamestown Foundation, which in turn riffed off MIT’s report of China’s creating super dogs for the police and military.
China, the headline over Ratcliffe’s piece ran, is “national security threat No. 1.”
Army of Communist Supermen
Ratcliffe described just how dangerous the Chinese have become because Chinese “students” study here and Chinese “entrepreneurs” have established a major beachhead in our economy.
But he also noted China’s disregard for normative ethics and morals means it will do anything to achieve global domination.
“U.S. intelligence shows that China has even conducted human testing on members of the People’s Liberation Army in hope of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities,” he wrote. “There are no ethical boundaries to Beijing’s pursuit of power.”
Ratcliffe told Fox’s Maria Bartiromo the same thing on Sunday Morning Futures:
The People’s Republic of China has 2 million strong in its military, and it’s trying to make them stronger through gene editing, and that’s just one of the ways that China is trying to essentially dominate the planet and set the rules and the world order. People need to understand this is an authoritarian regime. It doesn’t care about people’s individual rights. We’ve seen what they’ve done to the Uighurs. We’ve seen what they’ve done in Hong Kong. It’s about putting the state first, and that is the exact opposite of what has always made America great.
Citing China’s media, the Jamestown Foundation reported last year that “Chinese military scientists and strategists have consistently emphasized that biotechnology could become a ‘new strategic commanding heights of the future Revolution in Military Affairs.’”
That report cites the MIT Technology Review, which divulged in 2015 that China had created a heavily-muscled beagle named Hercules.
“The first humans to be subject to genetic engineering were also born in China as a result of the research of He Jianqui,” Elsa Kania and Wilson VornDick reported for Jamestown. “He removed the gene CCR5 to give twin babies immunity to HIV.”
But ethics don’t concern Chinese Reds:
While the potential [of manipulating genes] to increase human capabilities on the future battlefield remains only a hypothetical possibility at the present, there are indications that Chinese military researchers are starting to explore its potential. Of course, genetic engineering has numerous military applications in materials science, such as those that can involve maritime and aerospace applications. However, at a time when the Central Military Commission (CMC) Science and Technology Commission is also supporting research in human performance enhancement and “new concept” biotechnology, the potential intersections of these interests merit concern and consideration. For instance, a doctoral dissertation titled “Evaluation and Research on Human Performance Enhancement Technology,” published in 2016 [genetic engineering] one of three primary “human performance enhancement technologies” … that can be utilized to boost personnel combat effectiveness. The researcher argues that because CRISPR holds such “great potential” as a “disruptive” technology, China must “seize the initiative.”
Domestic Subversion
Yet even if an army of remorseless Chinese Terminators isn’t ready to attack just yet, “Beijing intends to dominate the U.S. and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically,” Ratcliffe wrote.
China’s approach to “trade” and “investment” is really “economic espionage” — “rob, replicate and replace”:
China robs U.S. companies of their intellectual property, replicates the technology, and then replaces the U.S. firms in the global marketplace.
Take Sinovel. In 2018 a federal jury found the Chinese wind-turbine manufacturer guilty of stealing trade secrets from American Superconductor. Penalties were imposed but the damage was done. The theft resulted in the U.S. company losing more than $1 billion in shareholder value and cutting 700 jobs. Today Sinovel sells wind turbines world-wide as if it built a legitimate business through ingenuity and hard work rather than theft.
The FBI frequently arrests Chinese nationals for stealing research-and-development secrets. Until the head of Harvard’s Chemistry Department was arrested earlier this year, China was allegedly paying him $50,000 a month as part of a plan to attract top scientists and reward them for stealing information. The professor has pleaded not guilty to making false statements to U.S. authorities. Three scientists were ousted in 2019 from MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston over concerns about China’s theft of cancer research. The U.S. government estimates that China’s intellectual-property theft costs America as much as $500 billion a year, or between $4,000 and $6,000 per U.S. household.
China also steals sensitive U.S. defense technology to fuel President Xi Jinping’s aggressive plan to make China the world’s foremost military power.
Ratcliffe also explained that China has targeted “several dozen members of Congress and congressional aides” in a major “influence campaign.”
Continued Ratcliffe:
Consider this scenario: A Chinese-owned manufacturing facility in the U.S. employs several thousand Americans. One day, the plant’s union leader is approached by a representative of the Chinese firm. The businessman explains that the local congresswoman is taking a hard-line position on legislation that runs counter to Beijing’s interests — even though it has nothing to do with the industry the company is involved in — and says the union leader must urge her to shift positions or the plant and all its jobs will soon be gone.
The union leader contacts his congresswoman and indicates that his members won’t support her re-election without a change in position. He tells himself he’s protecting his members, but in that moment he’s doing China’s bidding, and the congresswoman is being influenced by China, whether she realizes it or not.
Ratcliffe wrote that China’s effort to control Congress greatly exceeds that of Russia and other foreign powers.
But China’s sedulous effort to work with unscrupulous legislators also explains something: its zeal to get in bed with Hunter Biden, son of the “President-elect” of the United States.
H/T: Legal Insurrection, NBC News
