China’s rapid rise in biotechnology poses a national security threat, urging the U.S. to invest heavily in innovation and defence. File
| Photo Credit: AP
As the world enters an age of biotechnology, there is emerging evidence that China is “distorting” biotechnology markets and is quickly ascending to “dominance” in this field, having made this a strategic priority for the last 20 years, according to the U.S. National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology.
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In a report submitted to the U.S. Congress, the Commission warned that China is likely to weaponise the technology and may create genetically enhanced super-soldiers, powered by artificial intelligence, or AI.
“To remain competitive, the U.S. must take swift action in the next three years. Otherwise, we risk falling behind, a setback from which we may never recover,” said the report, which was released earlier this week, and is based on two years of research and consultations with private and public experts.
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It is certain that a biotechnology revolution is coming, the Commission reiterated. “There will be a ChatGPT moment for biotechnology, and if China gets there first, no matter how fast we run, we will never catch up,” it warned.
‘Steal, scale, strangle’
The world is entering the age of biotechnology, a time when biology is the basis of innovation, the report says in a sober analysis, stressing that every strategic sector — including defence, healthcare, agriculture, energy, and manufacturing — can be advanced by biotechnology, but also breached by it.
The Commission’s research indicates that China is likely to follow the same playbook with biotechnology as it has with other strategic technologies, the report said. “First, they steal. Then, they scale. Once they have cornered the market, they strangle,” it said, pointing to the Chinese restrictions on gallium and germanium in 2024 that had disrupted U.S. semiconductor production.
Noting that U.S. allies and partners offer unique capabilities, the report referred to India which it says is “prioritizing” cost-effective bio-manufacturing, particularly of vaccines. “We must do more to take advantage of our partners’ unparalleled strengths, which could include entering into reciprocal data-sharing agreements or pooling demand for biotechnology products,” it said.
AI-powered super-soldiers
Particularly focussing on biotech in the defence domain, the Commission said it has every reason to believe that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will “weaponize” biotechnology. Now, with its Military-Civil Fusion strategy, the CCP aims to use biotechnology-powered troops — terming this “intelligent warfare” — to make the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) a “world-class military” by 2049. “Drone warfare will seem quaint if we are faced with genetically enhanced PLA super-soldiers with fused human and AI,” the report warned.
Giving an example of how China is distorting the biotechnology markets, the report delved into how the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) and MGI Tech have financed their growth in an “atypical manner” that indicates “undisclosed” state involvement and “subsidization,” undermining their foreign competitors in the genomic sequencing market. “China’s ability to manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) at disproportionately low prices led India to impose a unilateral anti-dumping duty on certain APIs from China in 2022 to protect its domestic manufacturing industry,” it observed.
Recommendations for the U.S.
The Commission’s main recommendation is that the U.S. government should dedicate a minimum of $15 billion over the next five years to unleash more private capital into the national biotechnology sector.
After an extensive study, including more than 1,800 stakeholder consultations, the Commission listed out a set of top-priority recommendations for the U.S. government. These include suggestions to: prioritise biotechnology at the national level; mobilise the private sector to get U.S. products to scale; maximise the benefits of biotechnology for defence; out-innovate strategic competitors; build the biotechnology workforce of the future; and mobilise the collective strengths of allies and partners.
Further cautioning that the window to act is closing, the Commission pitched a two-track strategy, to make America innovate faster, and slow China down. In this regard, it called for defending American biotechnology IP and data against Chinese state-sponsored corporate espionage, even if this means rejecting an attractive investment. “We must not treat Chinese state-run companies as ordinary competitors in our market, even if it means using more expensive alternatives. China does not have a right to American research—period,” it said.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is accelerating us toward the inflection point, the Commission said, noting that though the U.S.’s advantage was once thought “unassailable”, China has emerged as a powerhouse in AI-enabled biotechnology.
Published – April 19, 2025 09:40 pm IST
