In the Shadows of Science: Unravelling China's Invisible Arsenals of Nanoweapons

Executive Summary

1. China's invisible arsenals of nanotechnology-driven weapons encompass a range of advanced weaponry that are distinctly focused on providing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with a range of asymmetric warfare options. This includes the delivery of biological, biochemical and neurobiological weapons on target populations. These developments present enormous new challenges to global security that are without historical precedent in human history.

2. China's advancements in biotechnology raise concerns about potential dual-use applications, as there are fears they may be exploring genetically engineered pathogens for use in biological warfare, while obfuscating the original point of origins. While the CCP’s attempts to obfuscate the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s role in the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic were unsuccessful, nanotechnology delivery systems would make future investigations and determinations of specific attribution more challenging.

3. It is essential for the international community to closely monitor China's advancements in these areas and engage in open discussions to define the boundaries of what constitutes a chemical weapon, biological weapon, or any other type of invisible arsenals.

4. By understanding and addressing these challenges, nations can collectively work to strengthen arms control regimes and maintain global security in the face of rapidly evolving threats. If the CCP refuses to engage in these discussions, that is also information and should then generate precision targeting plans to eliminate these threats.

5. Researchers from the Hefei Institute of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have made a breakthrough in DNA nanotechnology, developing a smart DNA molecular nanorobot model. This model innovatively proposes a non-linear gathering ‘siege’ of biological targets, allowing for advanced signal amplification and intelligent targeted drug delivery.

6. The article suggests that this technology has potential applications in biosensing, bioimaging, and drug delivery. However, there are risks associated with this advancement. The ability of nanorobots to transport biological agents directly to target cells with deadly precision could be exploited by the CCP’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) for harmful purposes.

7. It could be used to deliver biological agents with precision, making it a potential threat for biological warfare. Additionally, the close collaboration between the Hefei Institute of Physical Science and the PLA raises concerns about potential dual-use applications of this technology for military purposes.

8. The CCP views nanotechnology-driven warfare as a core component of its asymmetric warfare strategy against the United States and its Allies. They are part of the CCP’s standard order of battle; not an unconventional set of capabilities only to be used under extreme circumstances. This represents a fundamental difference in strategic thinking regarding these domains in Beijing.

9. However, the CCP’s weaponization of multiple scientific disciplines extends well beyond viruses (such as SARS-CoV-2), as well as beyond the scope and understanding of classical bioweapons. Their new landscape of nanotechnology weapons development includes the entire synthetic biology spectrum; from human genome editing of soldiers, genetic manipulation of bacteria to using human-computer interface to attack and/or control entire populations.

10. These research programs are not obscure ‘moonshots’; they are core strategic focus areas that are designed to be utilized over the near-term and within current state strategic circumstances, such as in Taiwan. Any breakthrough in this dual-use research would provide unprecedented tools for the CCP to forcibly establish a new world order, which has been Xi Jinping’s lifelong goal.

11. For example, these capabilities can ‘fit’ into the CCP’s anti-access/area denial strategy in the Indo-Pacific. Imagine genetically immunized PLA troops being inserted into a geography where a specific weaponized bacterial strain has been released using nanotechnology delivery mechanisms prior to their entry to prepare the ground and eliminate points of resistance. Any remaining sources of resistance on the ground are then dealt with through neurobiological weaponry that instill intense fear and/or other forms of cognitive incoherence resulting in inaction.

12. The net result of such a scenario would be the PLA establishing absolute control over a geography such as Taiwan while simultaneously blunting any American strategic options to intervene and physically insert personnel into the theater. This would effectively negate and render inert America’s overwhelming conventional superiority with very few (if any) near-term remedies. This scenario is based on known existing CCP research programs and what the clear strategic aims of those programs are.

13. What is the current state and near-term trajectories of these programs? What new strategic options would these capabilities generate for the CCP? What are the critical dependencies and acute vulnerabilities of these programs? How do we collapse these CCP programs with no options for reconstitution or regeneration?

14. These are the types of questions that need to be directly addressed with domain expertise augmented by field-validated precision search and intelligence representation technology that are utilized by the CCP BioThreats Initiative.