- By Anurag Mishra
- Tue, 10 Jan 2023 06:31 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
New Delhi | Anurag Mishra: AS TENSIONS escalate between India and China after the clash of their troops in the Tawang sector of Arunachal Pradesh, there have been rising apprehensions over Chinese activities along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). A clash of this scale last occurred in Galwan valley in the year 2020.
Coming out in India's support, the US also accused China of being "provocative" towards its allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region. The Biden administration even pledged to remain committed to ensuring the security of its allies. In 2020 too, the United States openly expressed support for India in face of Chinese aggression.
Meanwhile, as China's military activities piqued global interests, a top US official, in 2020, claimed that China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) has allegedly conducted "human testing" on its members to develop super soldiers with "biologically enhanced capabilities".
The director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, had sneaked in this explosive claim in an opinion piece written for the Wall Street Journal. In his piece, he tried to prove that China is the most pre-eminent security threat to the US. John Ratcliffe is a Republican and former Congress member from the so-called "redneck" state of Texas.
In 2019, two American scholars had written a paper that examined China's ambitions to apply biotechnology to the battlefield, including what they said were signs that China was interested in using gene-editing technology to enhance human — and perhaps soldier — performance.
Interestingly, the research paper by the two scholars focused on China’s use of the gene-editing tool CRISPR - short for "clusters of regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats". This technology has been used to treat genetic diseases and modify plants. However, Western scientists caution against the use of CRISPR to manipulate genes to boost the performance of healthy people. Many scientists consider it unethical to do such a thing.
According to Ratcliffe, China sought to create "super soldiers" of the sort depicted in Hollywood films like 'Captain America', 'Bloodshot' and 'Universal Soldier'. The Chinese Communist Party has understandably denied such reports that suggest that it is conducting human tests to alter the DNA of humans. However, multiple reports have suggested that even if China is not considering creating super soldiers it is indeed working on exoskeletons that enhance the human capabilities of its soldiers.
Professor of Life Sciences at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, PC Rath says presently changing the DNA of humans to give them superhuman powers is not possible. According to him, scientists have developed techniques for gene editing but it is still a work in progress. Such techniques can be used to remove or discard certain discrepancies in the gene to treat genetic diseases. There is indeed a lot of work happening in China with regard to these techniques, but it is not yet so advanced that they can create super soldiers.
According to the Chairman of the Delhi Medical Council, Narendra Saini, it is a very difficult job to change the DNA of a person. He does not believe that science has advanced to make someone a super soldier by the method of gene editing. He informed that there are, in fact, rumours about certain viruses, known as man-made viruses, whose genes are altered. However, solid proof of such organisms is still not available. He also said that such a method is used to treat several diseases.
American intellectual and expert on Chinese military strategy, innovation, and emerging technologies Elsa B Kania - who is also an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for New American Security - believes that using CRISPR technique to enhance human capabilities will remain a far-fetched dream for the foreseeable future. However, she cautioned that Chinese military scientists are dedicated to finding a solution for the impediments in their way.
In her research paper, Kania writes, CRISPR is a gene-editing tool. She also alleges that academic institutions in China along with private enterprises have been ahead of the curve in experimenting with this technology. Beijing Genomics Inc is one of the companies that exist as a national repository of genes in China.
Legal regulations in China on medical research are not so robust or rigid. For example, currently, there are around 14 medical institutions in China that are engaged in research on CRISPR technology that is primarily targeted at finding possibilities to treat cancer with it. Interestingly, five different research projects are currently underway at the PLA medical Institute, especially PLA general hospital and a few other military academies.
It has been written in the research paper that CRISPR has many advantages in medicine and agriculture, but many researchers in China do not pass the test of ethics in this matter. The first humans to be born by genetic engineering were in China. During that time the communist nation was criticised for the fact that they had removed some genes to strengthen the creative abilities of human beings.
Retired Lieutenant General Mohan Bhandari says that making super soldiers by changing DNA is just a part of psychological warfare. During World War II, Hitler had instructed his scientists to prepare many soldiers of the same height, same weight and one way of thinking. But this was not possible. The simple thing is that even if you achieve something against nature, you will have to suffer more losses than gains.