Some countries have “armed” themselves with deadly weapons targeting human genes, China’s top spy agency alleged on Monday.
On its official WeChat account, the Ministry of State Security said that some nations had targeted the Chinese population for “ulterior motives.” However, it did not name the countries or provide evidence for the claim.
This is the first time a Chinese state body has publicly made such an allegation.
Targeted Weapon
Beijing has alleged that such countries have made a biological agent that is not engineered to affect the entire world population, but rather members of a specific race or ethnicity.
In this regard, the Chinese ministry added that although up to 99.9% of human DNA is common among all humans, there are key genetic differences that distinguish certain ethnicities.
These differences can be utilised to “kill targets of a predetermined race,” the ministry said.
Past Claims
China is not the first to claim the existence of such genetically targeted bioweapons.
In June, US presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr. claimed that “the Chinese are developing ethnic bioweapons.” He added that the US has also been working on such technology.
Last year, Russian officials accused Ukraine of producing bioweapons in US-funded laboratories. Some media reports suggested the weapons could be ethnically targeted.
Conspiracy Theory
Nonetheless, the mainstream scientific community has long dismissed the existence of such weapons, calling it a conspiracy theory.
In a report published last February, researchers from the Council on Strategic Risks said the threat of bioweapons as a deterrent was “irrelevant” because no country was safe from the effects of a pandemic.
“It is highly unlikely that a weapon that targets certain ethnic groups could be developed,” Richard Parsons, a senior lecturer in Biochemical Toxicology at King’s College London, said in response to Russia’s claims.
The researcher added that while there exist pharmaceutical agents that are more effective in certain ethnic groups, these take a long time to develop and “even members of the same ethnic group don’t share all these differences.”
Similarly, Oliver Jones, head of Biosciences and Food Technology at RMIT University, dismissed such reports to belong “purely in the realm of science fiction.”
He added via email to the South China Morning Post that humans are so genetically similar that a weapon designed to target one group was likely to harm the perpetrator as well.
“As far as I know nobody has actually shown a plausible, or even only theoretically plausible, way this could be done,” he concluded.
China Claims Some Countries are Developing Genetic Weapons to Target Certain Races
Beijing has alleged that such countries have made a biological agent that is not engineered to affect the entire world population, but rather members of a specific race or ethnicity.
October 31, 2023
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