Commentary
The recent security breach of 23andMe has prompted conservative groups to call for an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to break ties between the U.S. government and China-linked biotech firms.
The 23andMe hack saw the theft of the data of 6.9 million people. Specifically targeted were Chinese Americans and Jews. There’s no specific indication that the Chinese regime carried out the breach, although it’s suspicious that the stolen data specifically targeted Chinese Americans.
Along with communist China, Iran poses a
major hacking threat to the United States. Iran would be interested in the location and identities of Jewish Americans. And given the close relationship between Tehran and Beijing, it isn’t inconceivable that Iran would perpetrate such a hack in cooperation with or acting on behalf of Beijing. This hack, thankfully, has resurrected an argument from 2021 about countering China’s genetic database objectives.
In 2021, the National Counterintelligence and Security Center warned that Beijing is attempting to dominate the bioeconomy by building the world’s
largest biological database. Although much of the DNA data gathering is done by private companies, they’re still tools of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through its “military-civil fusion” policy.
Additionally, under China’s National Intelligence Law, private companies are required to share technology and information with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and intelligence services. Beijing prioritizes technologies that are critical to achieving its economic and military policy objectives. These include biotechnology, which can be obtained through tools such as espionage or theft, as well as science and technology investments in the United States, academic and research partnerships, and joint ventures. Consequently, the American private sector is a common target for the CCP’s nefarious activities.
One example of how the military-civil fusion works is a Chinese company,
Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI), which collaborates with the PLA. BGI produces paternity test kits used around the world, including in the United States. The transfer of this information back to China has aided the CCP in building a massive genetic data repository that, when combined with China’s artificial intelligence, can provide the CCP with an advantage in curing future pandemics but also can be used to track Uyghurs and other dissidents inside of China and abroad. Such genetic information could also
create diseases that attack specific vulnerabilities in our food supply or population.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, China donated
mobile coronavirus test labs called Fire-Eye to Serbia. Fire-Eye was capable of not only examining disease but also cracking the genetic code for humans, enabling the CCP to harvest and curate the genetic blueprint of every person in Serbia. Eventually, Fire-Eye labs found their way to 20 countries, including Canada, Latvia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Australia. Fire-Eye was manufactured by BGI Group and gave the company and CCP unprecedented access to foreign DNA. Notably, the CCP selected BGI Group to run the China National GeneBank.
The presence of BGI in the United States and allied nations, as well as the general threat posed by the CCP gene-gathering program, is made even more ominous in light of speculation by Chinese military scientists that they could manufacture
genetic-based weapons based on genomic information of a particular population.
Some in the United States argue that China’s main interest in obtaining these genetic data is to gain an economic advantage by being the first to market new medicines in the future. They also point out that there’s no evidence that China has used any of these genetic data for military purposes or to launch attacks on the United States and other countries. Still, the possibility is certainly there. China amasses conventional and nuclear weapons to use against the United States. Why would the regime shy away from using gene-based weapons?
An October WeChat post by the Chinese Ministry of National Security reads, “If used by individuals or organizations with ulterior motives,
genetic weapons can even be developed to kill targets of a predetermined race, thereby selectively attacking targets with specific race genes.
“Compared with traditional biological weapons and chemical weapons, genetic weapons are more concealable, deceptive, easy to spread and harmful in the long term, and are difficult to prevent, difficult to isolate and low-cost. Once used in war, the consequences will be devastating.”
So even if the CCP hasn’t yet deployed such weapons, it’s clearly thinking about them.
Sixteen conservative groups
have petitioned Congress to pass an NDAA amendment that would break ties between the U.S. government and CCP-linked biotech firms, particularly BGI. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) are the leads on the amendment. Mr. Gallagher, who’s also chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP, said that without the amendment, Americans are
paying the CCP to steal our genetic data.
Beijing claims that BGI is a private company, but it
receives capital from the CCP regime and CCP-linked entities. Given China’s military-civil fusion strategy and the National Intelligence Law, it’s clear that BGI and other Chinese biotech firms pose a threat to national security and shouldn’t be receiving taxpayer money.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
