The Chinese military is building sophisticated biological weapons and small-scale electronic tools made with nanotechnology that could be used in future covert warfare, a major new study warns.
“China’s invisible arsenals encompass a range of advanced weaponry that are distinctly focused on providing the Chinese Communist Party with a range of asymmetric warfare options, including the delivery of biological, biochemical and neurobiological weapons on target populations,” according to a report by three open-source intelligence analysts.
Infrastructure attacks using nanorobots “could lead to blackouts, communication failures, or financial disruptions, posing severe threats to national security and stability,” the report said. One of the Chinese institutes that published the 2021 paper, the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, has been linked by the U.S. government to PLA cyberattacks against the U.S., the report said.
Combined nano-cyber biological weapons are also an area of deep concern. Experts warn they could be used in hybrid Chinese weapons that could infect computers, disrupt communications networks or control biological agents remotely. “We must maintain our momentum to prepare for any number of complex potential biological threats,” she said during a conference hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.
“When it comes to biosecurity threats, the U.S. is the most active and suspected country in conducting bio-military activities,” Wang Wenbin, a ministry spokesman, told reporters recently. A key danger outlined in the report is China’s use of nanotechnology medicine that can produce medical advances but also be misused for bioweapons.
Another Chinese nanotechnology designed to detect nerve agents also could be used by the Chinese military to develop more efficient and sophisticated chemical weapons, the report said. U.S. intelligence agencies have obtained information that China is working on biological weapons designed to attack specific ethnic groups, a U.S. official with access to intelligence told The Washington Times in May 2020.
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