The National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) has issued a stark warning: The United States is at risk of falling behind China in the critical field of biotechnology. In its final report to Congress, the bipartisan commission, staffed with the national security insiders, calls for a comprehensive national strategy and a minimum investment of $15 billion over the next five years, ostensibly to bolster U.S. leadership in biotech.
Race With China
The 2025 final report of the NSCEB opens not with a warning, but with a prophecy:
We stand at the edge of a new industrial revolution, one that depends on our ability to engineer biology. Emerging biotechnology, coupled with artificial intelligence, will transform everything from the way we defend and build our nation to how we nourish and provide care for Americans.
This philosophy mirrors almost verbatim the World Economic Forum’s vision of the Fourth Industrial Revolution — a future where the physical, digital, and biological worlds merge. What the WEF describes as a “new chapter in human development,” the commission recasts as a zero-sum contest for national survival:
China is using every tool at its disposal to replace the United States as the global leader in biotechnology.
The report details:
China is investing heavily in gene editing, bionic robots, human-machine teaming, and biomanufacturing, and it is targeting these technologies for military applications.
To beat China, the commission argues, the United States must go bigger. Smarter. Faster. Deadlier. The path forward is to build better biotechnologies — including in warfare — before others do.
“This contest will shape the security of our nation, the strength of our economy, and the well-being of our people,” stresses the report.
Failure to Act
The Commission warns that if the United States cedes ground in biotechnology, the consequences could be, in its words, “catastrophic.”
It outlines four scenarios — “Attack,” “Destroy,” “Starve,” “Harm” — in which adversaries turn biology against the American homeland.
Genetically enhanced soldiers, paired with brain-computer interfaces, could outmaneuver U.S. forces before decisions can be made.
Engineered microbes might silently degrade bridges and roads, triggering structural collapses disguised as accidents.
A weaponized crop pathogen could cripple American agriculture, driving up food prices and clearing out store shelves.
And in a major conflict, the United States could find itself cut off from basic medicines — most of which are now imported from China – leaving millions without access to lifesaving treatments.
Key Recommendations
The report outlines a sweeping, six-pillar strategy to secure U.S. dominance in biotechnology. Its recommendations range from federal reorganization and capital deployment to battlefield integration and alliance coordination. Together, they represent a blueprint for full-spectrum domination in synthetic biology.
Prioritize Biotechnology at the National Level
The Commission calls for centralized authority over the U.S. biotechnology agenda:
Congress must establish a National Biotechnology Coordination Office (NBCO) in the Executive Office of the President … to coordinate interagency actions on biotechnology competition and regulation.
The NBCO would publish a national biotech strategy every five years and oversee what the report calls a “whole-of-nation initiative to advance biotechnology of food, health, economic and national securities.” Legislation to establish the office was introduced last week.
Mobilize the Market
China backs its biotech firms with direct state support. The Commission argues the United States must counter this — not by copying it, but by unlocking private capital with national purpose.
It identifies regulatory red tape, stagnant capital, and inadequate scale-up capacity as structural liabilities. Without intervention, the U.S. biotech sector will remain commercially stunted — and strategically exposed:
Congress must establish and fund an Independence Investment Fund … that would invest in technology startups that strengthen U.S. national and economic security.
The report demands simpler regulatory pathways and the removal of barriers for “familiar products” — a term it leaves undefined. But in context, this likely refers to mRNA-based therapeutics and genetically modified crops already on the market. It also calls for a nationwide network of bioindustrial scale-up facilities, built by the Departments of Energy and Commerce.
To protect critical assets, the Commission insists on reclassifying biotech infrastructure and data as “critical infrastructure.”
It further recommends disclosure requirements for foreign supply-chain dependencies and a ban on federal contractors using Chinese biotech firms considered national security threats.
Weaponize Biology
The battlefield is evolving, and biology is the new vector. Yet the Department of Defense, the Commission warns, has failed to adapt:
Congress must direct the Department of Defense to consult with stakeholders to define principles for ethical use of biotechnology for the U.S. military.
That ethical framework, however, is only the beginning. The Commission calls for a domestic network of commercial biomanufacturing facilities to ensure uninterrupted supply of mission-critical materials during conflict.
It also demands legal safeguards to ensure U.S. capital cannot fuel foreign military biotech programs:
Congress must require outbound investment rules to ensure that U.S. capital does not support Chinese development of certain biotechnologies.
Out-Innovate Strategic Competitors
Innovation alone will not secure the future. The U.S. must treat biological data as a strategic asset:
Congress must authorize the Department of Energy to create a Web of Biological Data (WOBD), a single point of entry for researchers to access high-quality data.
This system would ensure domestic control of sensitive datasets, while securing them against adversarial access:
Congress must conduct oversight of existing policies … to ensure that China cannot obtain bulk and sensitive biological data from the United States.
To push the frontier, the Commission recommends establishing Centers for Biotechnology within the national laboratory network to pursue what it calls “grand research challenges.” Think Wuhan-style biolab near your metro area.
Workforce of the Future
The Commission identifies a dangerous gap between the biotechnology landscape and the U.S. government’s human capital. A 21st-century threat requires 21st-century talent:
Congress must direct the Office of Personnel Management to provide workforce training in biotechnology across the interagency.
This goes far beyond hiring. It requires reengineering how federal agencies understand, regulate, and defend biological systems:
Congress must maximize the impact of domestic biomanufacturing workforce training programs.
In effect, the United States must cultivate not just scientists, but biological strategists.
Securing Alliances
The Commission concludes with a global warning. It implies biotechnology will be foundational to diplomacy, trade, and war. As such, it must be safeguarded not only within the United States, but among its allies:
Congress must include biotechnology in the scope of the Department of State’s International Technology Security and Innovation Fund to appropriately fund international biotechnology policy, research and development (R&D), and secure supply chains.
The report also urges deeper integration with U.S. allies — particularly NATO. In 2024, the alliance released a biotechnology strategy and began investing in dual-use technologies through its Defense Innovation Accelerator (DIANA) and NATO Innovation Fund (NIF). The Commission frames this as an opportunity to “leverage shared resources” — capital, data, and R&D — to advance a collective biotech frontier. In effect, the architecture of the Biosecurity State is not only national, but transatlantic.
The Deep State Goes Cellular
The NSCEB presents itself as a bipartisan panel charting a path to technological resilience. But its composition tells another story. This is not a gathering of independent scientists or neutral policy experts. The commission is stacked with veterans of the intelligence, defense, and surveillance state — individuals with deep institutional ties to the CIA, NSA, and Department of Defense. Among them: In-Q-Tel executives, former national security officials, and stewards of post-9/11 national security policy who advanced the fusion of intelligence, surveillance, and emerging technology under the banner of homeland defense.
In short, the same unelected class — commonly referred to as the Deep State — that has spent decades expanding surveillance and eroding personal freedom is now positioning itself as the steward of American biotechnology, a field that, in their hands, will bring about the very dystopia envisioned by the architects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Therefore, rather than charging blindly into a militarized bio-future of their design, the only secure path forward may lie in rejecting that vision — by returning to the foundational principles of a limited republic and by normalizing relations with the world in ways that make such arms races unnecessary in the first place.
