The US government sanctioned China's Academy of Military Medical Sciences and 11 related research institutes for allegedly developing 'biotechnology' that 'controls the brain' to assist the armed forces.
The US Commerce Department's blacklisting of Chinese institutes did not go into detail about the weapons - but another cache of military documents from 2019 indicates that China is concentrating its efforts on 'paralyzing and controlling the adversary' through 'attacking the adversary's will to resist', rather than destroying the adversary.
The Washington Times obtained and translated 2019 documents indicating that the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences and its affiliates have been added to the 'entity list,' which means that American firms cannot export or transfer items to them without a license.
According to a US official speaking to the Financial Times, China is attempting to create technology that encompasses 'gene editing, human performance augmentation, and brain machine interfacing.'
US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo stated that there are concerns that China may use any of these weapons to maintain control over its own citizens, notably ethnic Uighur Muslims.
'Unfortunately, the People's Republic of China has chosen to employ these technologies to further its control over its people and repression of ethnic and religious minorities,' she said.
'We cannot allow US commodities, technology, and software that support medical science and biotechnological innovation to be diverted away from US national security-related uses.'
Additionally, the Commerce Department blacklisted Chinese firms, as well as those from Georgia, Malaysia, and Turkey, for allegedly diverting US goods to Iran's military, a US enemy.
According to the former Trump administration, the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences was allegedly engaged in the development of the covid-19 vaccine.
However, this year, the academy has been actively involved in the creation of a Covid-19 vaccine, despite the fact that the US has grown increasingly concerned about the links between civilian and military research in China.
